{"id":192,"date":"2006-07-19T13:52:19","date_gmt":"2006-07-19T20:52:19","guid":{"rendered":"\/?p=192"},"modified":"2007-05-11T12:47:51","modified_gmt":"2007-05-11T19:47:51","slug":"is-the-irs-meddling-in-politics-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=192","title":{"rendered":"Is The IRS Meddling In Politics? Again!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ombwatch.org\/article\/articleview\/3496\" target=\"_blank\">Political Activity Compliance Initiative<\/a> (PACI). Sounds ominous, doesn&#8217;t it? That&#8217;s what the IRS is calling its program to investigate churches and other non-profit groups that they suspect of engaging in impermissible political activity.<\/p>\n<p>Tax-exempt organizations are properly prohibited from overtly engaging in partisan politics. It&#8217;s entirely appropriate to keep religious institutions and others from operating as tax-free front groups for politicians while avoiding campaign finance laws. The problem with PACI is that it doesn&#8217;t provide a workable definition for the activity it seeks to regulate. Consequently, the affected institutions have no clear guidelines for when they may be in violation. In addition, the agency can use the initiative to target groups for partisan purposes. The result would be political activity compliance, alright. <\/p>\n<p>Indeed, amongst the more high profile investigations are those against the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/ac2\/wp-dyn\/A7433-2004Oct28?language=printer\" target=\"_blank\">NAACP<\/a> and the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/wp-dyn\/content\/article\/2005\/11\/18\/AR2005111802501_pf.html\" target=\"_blank\">All Saints Church<\/a>, a predominately liberal congregation in Pasadena, CA. Last year, Congressman Kendrick Meek (D-FL) <a href=\"http:\/\/kendrickmeek.house.gov\/press\/2005.04.06.shtml\" target=\"_blank\">sent a letter<\/a> to IRS Commissioner, Mark W. Everson, asking him to look into whether black churches in Florida were being unfairly singled out.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ombwatch.org\/article\/articleview\/3496\" target=\"_blank\">OMB Watch<\/a> prepared a report detailing the pitfalls of the IRS program. They summarized several factors that they believe raise constitutional concerns:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The vagueness of the &#8220;facts and circumstances&#8221; test<\/li>\n<li>Secrecy regarding enforcement action<\/li>\n<li>IRS statements regarding its intent to prevent repeat violations before an election<\/li>\n<li>The threat that an organization&#8217;s tax-exempt status will be revoked<\/li>\n<li>Lack of deadlines for closing cases<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>In addition to these concerns is the potential for partisan mischief if politically motivated people or groups chose to file complaints against opponents as a strategy to suppress free expression. The IRS would then be obligated to conduct an investigation which could lead to the revocation of the non-profit&#8217;s tax-exempt status. This would have a chilling effect on free speech as well as the free exercise of religion.<\/p>\n<p>Could it be more than a curious coincidence that this initiative is being advanced at this time during an election year? This is not the first time the IRS has made a point of chasing down churches and charities. In June of 2004, Everson appeared before a Senate committee to announce <a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/ac2\/wp-dyn\/A62501-2004Jun22?language=printer\" target=\"_blank\">an unprecedented audit effort<\/a> against these groups. That announcement also came in the midst of election year politics.<\/p>\n<p>This administration has demonstrated that it cannot be trusted to tell the truth or to act honorably. The lies it told prior to the Iraq war, its incompetence in the aftermath of hurricane Katrina, the innumerable examples of partisanship with regard to legislating, judges, executive appointees, election fraud, etc., are all good reasons to be suspicious of their motivation for launching this initiative. Would you trust the IRS to administer this program fairly? <a href=\"http:\/\/www.irs.gov\/irs\/article\/0,,id=98192,00.html\" target=\"_blank\">Commissioner Everson<\/a> came right from the Bush White House, where he was deputy director for management for the Office of Management and Budget. His wife, Nanette, was a White House counsel. One of his<a href=\"http:\/\/www.ombwatch.org\/article\/articleview\/2796\/1\/84\" target=\"_blank\"> first projects<\/a> at IRS was a plan to cross-check applications for tax-exempt status against terrorist watch lists. These lists were notoriously inaccurate. He also considered <a href=\"http:\/\/www.boston.com\/news\/nation\/washington\/articles\/2003\/09\/25\/irs_considers_giving_data_to_other_agencies?mode=PF\" target=\"_blank\">sharing IRS data<\/a> with other agencies in spite of the fact that it was illegal to do so. He was said to believe that 9\/11 legislation gave him the authority to act without the laws being changed. Sound familiar?<\/p>\n<p>The rubber stamp Republican congress cannot be depended on to fulfill its oversight responsibilities. The media won&#8217;t be any help either. So if the IRS accuses liberal non-profits of politicking, without also going after the Falwells and the Dobsons, it will be up to the people to set the media and the government straight.<\/p>\n<p><strong>UPDATE:<\/strong> I wonder if any action has been taken concerning <a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/wp-dyn\/content\/article\/2005\/05\/07\/AR2005050700972.html\" target=\"_blank\">this pastor<\/a> who told his congregation that anyone who planned to vote for Kerry should either leave the church or repent?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Political Activity Compliance Initiative (PACI). Sounds ominous, doesn&#8217;t it? That&#8217;s what the IRS is calling its program to investigate churches and other non-profit groups that they suspect of engaging in impermissible political activity. Tax-exempt organizations are properly prohibited from overtly engaging in partisan politics. It&#8217;s entirely appropriate to keep religious institutions and others from [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-192","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","category-scandalous"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4Ijg-36","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":12912,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=12912","url_meta":{"origin":192,"position":0},"title":"Fox News Wants IRS To Strip Media Matters Of Its Tax-Exempt Status","author":"Mark NC","date":"4\/24\/2014","format":false,"excerpt":"For much of the past year Fox News has devoted huge chunks of airtime to a phony scandal alleging that the IRS improperly targeted Tea Party groups for extra scrutiny with regard to their applications for tax-exempt status. In fact, recent discoveries prove that progressive groups actually received an even\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;General&quot;","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"Fox News","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/foxnews-media-matters-irs1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":9890,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=9890","url_meta":{"origin":192,"position":1},"title":"Tea Party Groups Suing The IRS Never Suffered Any Harm","author":"Mark NC","date":"6\/12\/2013","format":false,"excerpt":"The more we learn about the IRS allegedly targeting Tea Party organizations for political purposes, the more it appears to be a thinly disguised scam by conservatives to whip up phony scandals in order to tarnish President Obama and his administration. Never mind the fact that every named IRS employee\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;General&quot;","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10259,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=10259","url_meta":{"origin":192,"position":2},"title":"Fox News Inadvertently Proves Phoniness Of Phony Scandals","author":"Mark NC","date":"7\/29\/2013","format":false,"excerpt":"When President Obama correctly noted that Republicans have spent an inordinate amount of time obsessing over so-called \"scandals,\" rather than addressing the real issues that matter most to Americans, it touched off a spate of pundits spending an inordinate amount of time obsessing over Obama's remarks, rather than addressing real\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;General&quot;","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10340,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=10340","url_meta":{"origin":192,"position":3},"title":"Fox News Lies: Agent Did Not Confirm That IRS Is Still Targeting Tea Party","author":"Mark NC","date":"8\/9\/2013","format":false,"excerpt":"A little over a week ago the House Ways and Means Committee, chaired by uber-rightist Republican Dave Camp, held a closed-door hearing wherein they interviewed an anonymous IRS agent. Immediately afterward they broke for recess and left town. Now, a week later, and still on vacation, Camp released a smidgen\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;General&quot;","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9685,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=9685","url_meta":{"origin":192,"position":4},"title":"Republicans Succeed In Turning Americans Against The IRS &#8211; And Other Fairy Tales","author":"Mark NC","date":"5\/17\/2013","format":false,"excerpt":"The hyper-partisan political landscape in America has been heating up in the past week or so. Despite the numerous issues that Americans are anxious for their representatives to address (jobs, economy, guns, healthcare, immigration, defense, etc.), Republicans in congress have signaled that they have no intention of moving a legislative\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;General&quot;","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9812,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=9812","url_meta":{"origin":192,"position":5},"title":"Is The IRS\/Tea Party Affair A False Flag Operation By GOP Operatives?","author":"Mark NC","date":"6\/3\/2013","format":false,"excerpt":"\"This and no other is the root from which a tyrant springs; when he first appears he is a protector.\" ~ Plato The force of fury that is emanating from Republicans in congress as they mount their crusade to ostensibly \"protect\" the nation from the wild excesses of a government\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;General&quot;","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=192"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=192"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=192"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=192"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}