The Washington
The power to tax is the power
to destroy. Its new powers will let the IRS destroy certain groups, especially
those connected to the Tea Party, by imposing a tax on their work and messages
during campaign seasons. Even the value of volunteer work could be taxed.
Suspicion traces the plan
directly to President Barack Obama, since he personally met with IRS chief
counsel William Wilkins — an Obama political appointee and long-time supporter
— in the Roosevelt Room of the White House on April 23, 2012, two days before
the IRS issued its key internal directives to target Tea Party and other
conservative groups.
Now, unless Congress acts
quickly to block them, new IRS regulations will deliver a death penalty to many
of almost 100,000 grass-roots non-profits known as 501(c)(4) groups. They often
provide information to the public about political issues, befitting their tax
requirement to benefit social welfare.
The IRS wants to create a new
bureaucratic definition that re-labels those common voter information
activities by re-naming them “candidate-related political activity.” For short,
IRS calls it CRPA, but CRAP would fit better.
This is actually a gag rule.
But the IRS’s new speech restrictions do not apply to labor unions, trade
associations, political parties, or other non-profit groups such as
501(c)(3)’s. The impact is limited to the 501(c)(4)’s, which are the favorite
vehicle for Tea Party groups.
The Left also has 501(c)(4)
non-profits which could be muzzled by the new rules. But the Obama
Administration is notorious for selective enforcement, meaning it could choose
to give a pass to friendly groups while it puts conservatives out of business.
They could use this in efforts to shut down groups like the Faith and Freedom
Coalition, Club for Growth, Americans for Prosperity and the National Rifle
Association, while ignoring People for the American Way
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