Wednesday, June 5, 2013

Milking a "Scandal" For All They Can Get

Trey Smith

Tea Party and other conservative groups delivered an emotional plea for Washington to rein in government overreach on Tuesday as they told lawmakers about how the Internal Revenue Service targeted them with relentless paperwork and intrusive questions when they sought tax-exempt status.

The House Ways and Means Committee invited a collection of groups to speak about their experiences as details continue to emerge about how and why IRS officials in a Cincinnati, Ohio, field office began targeting conservative groups for extra scrutiny.

"This was not an accident. This is a willful act of intimidation intended to discourage a point of view," said Becky Gerritson, president of a Tea Party group in Wetumpka, Alabama.

She tearfully described how she and her husband had to seek legal counsel when confronted with questionnaires about their donors, communications with legislators and their voter education activities.

"I'm not interested in scoring political points. I want to protect and preserve the America I grew up in," Gerritson said.
~ from Tea Party Groups Emotionally Describe Harassment by IRS by Kim Dixon ~
This whole "scandal" is getting sillier by the day. These groups are claiming they were persecuted because...the IRS asked them pertinent questions? Yes, it is pertinent to ask organizational leaders of political groups masquerading as social welfare organizations tough questions. As I have stated previously, what I find scandalous is that these overtly political groups were granted tax-exempt status! What this means is that lots of Americans who do NOT subscribe to their conservative views are now forced to subsidize them!

I also want to note one salient fact that generally has gone unmentioned in the mainstream media. When an organization applies for tax-exempt status, they can behave as if they are tax-exempt until a decision has been made on their application. Since every one of the applications of these whiners was, in fact, approved, there was no injury to each organization's bottom line. In other words, aside from answering pertinent questions, there were no encumbrances. So, why are the screaming bloody murder?

And we know the answer to that question. They didn't want to admit that they indeed ARE overtly political organizations that shouldn't qualify for tax-exempt status.

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