The GOP has been in the Obama Administration’s ear yelling “unfair profiling” by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) for targeting conservative groups that were looking for tax exemptions as 501(c)(4) organizations. However, this alleged “scandal” that was cooked up by the GOP has been unearthing another, this time tangibly provable, scandal.
What made it easy for the Tea Party cash cattlers to abuse the 501(c)(4) non-profit status are its vague and loosely written codes. So much so that The Nation reports that the “IRS rules for primary activity have been interpreted to mean that 501(c)(4) groups cannot spend more than 49 percent of their funds on political endeavors.”
If anything, that’s the part of the code that should be written crystal-clear, black-and-white. Something like that should never have been left to “interpretation.”
One of the most notorious 501(c)(4) violators is the American Action Network, which is headed by corporate lobbyists from Sallie Mae and Goldman Sachs. The vaguely written 501(c)(4) provision prohibits more than 49 percent being spent on political endeavors. AAN is forking out anywhere from 67 – 80 percent of their money on political endeavors.
Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) was a recipient of a handsome $745,000 donation from the AAN. Johnson is also among the group of politicians that demanded hearings against the IRS’s “wrongful targeting” of Tea Party groups. Now, as notorious as the AAN may be, their contribution to Johnson is a drop in the bucket compared to a group that only spent $3 million of $12 million raised on social welfare causes back in 2010.
The Tea Party and the GOP in general have been causing such a gigantic stir and looking for absolutely anything to discredit the Dems and President Obama, and they are having a hard time as they are unsuccessfully trying to connect Obama to the IRS. It’s the same thing with Benghazi. The truth is, is that the conservatives are still reeling from their loss in the 2012 election.
They thought 2012 was going to be their year of victory, a chance take the White House from that “socialist, Muslim” Obama. But when the results came in that one Tuesday night last November, right-wing jaws hit the floor. Now, the GOP is struggling, trying to tread water. Their popularity is way down, and three years might not be enough time to convert minority and woman voters, so the only feasible plan for them? Go after Obama and the Democrats.
Joshua de Leon is a writer and researcher with Ring of Fire.
