Remember ancient history, all the way back in 2013, when the world was a much simpler place and the news of the day was that the IRS had supposedly “singled out” Tea Party organizations for further scrutiny before allowing them tax-exempt 501(c)(4) status? It’s been a while, but those events are still shaking out in the legal system.
Remember ancient history, all the way back in 2013, when the world was a much simpler place and the news of the day was that the IRS had supposedly “singled out” Tea Party organizations for further scrutiny before allowing them tax-exempt 501(c)(4) status? It’s been a while, but those events are still shaking out in the legal system. According to the conservative-leaning Washington Times, IRS senior executive Lois Lerner and another IRS employee, Holly Paz, are willing to testify about their role in the events of 2013, but they want their depositions to be sealed for all eternity because they’ve already faced “harassment and death threats” from Very Outraged People and are afraid that further publicity would put their lives and well-being at risk.
The American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ) is representing several Tea Party and conservative groups in a class action suit against Steven Miller, former acting IRS chief, as well as Lois Lerner and Holly Paz. The ACLJ is the Right’s conservative, Christian-based answer to the ACLU (because apparently an organization that has defended Christians numerous times in court as part of their efforts to back true religious freedom is too liberal).
Of course, the conservative groups represented by the ACLJ object to the sort of secrecy that Lois Lerner and her co-defendants are requesting.
It’s funny that the conservatives are harping on transparency now, when exposing Lois Lerner to harm (presumably from outraged conservatives and Tea Partiers) could conceivably suit their agenda. Would that this sincere desire for all the facts to be made clear and public had welled up four years ago when news of the “scandal” broke.
Why is that? Because, although you wouldn’t know it if you got all your news from conservative media outlets, the IRS didn’t single out only politically Right-leaning, Tea Party type groups for additional inquiry as to their eligibility for tax exempt status. According to the IRS, tax-exempt 501(c)(4) status is given to two kinds of groups: social welfare organizations (civic leagues and other non-profits like charities) and local associations of employees (when the net earnings of the group are devoted to “charitable, educational or recreational purposes”). Political groups can exist for educational purposes, but to be granted tax-exempt status, “political educational organizations must conduct their activities in a non-partisan manner.”
In other words, the Tea Party and other political groups were seeking tax relief by claiming non-partisan charitable status. Wait, “other political groups”? Yes, Virginia, other groups also got a close-up look by the IRS while applying for tax-exempt status. It’s the IRS’s job to make sure that partisan political groups aren’t cheating the system. That’s why, while checking out Tea Party and conservative groups, the IRS also gave an extra dose of attention to groups whose names or descriptions included words like:
- Patriot
- Israel
- Progressive
- Occupy
- Medical Marijuana
- Occupied Territory Advocacy
- Healthcare Legislation
- Newspapers
- Paying National Debt
- Green Energy
- ACORN successors
- Emerge (used by Democratic-leaning groups)
It’s also worth noting that the IRS, under the watchful eye of George W. Bush, selectively audited progressive churches, threatening to revoke the tax-exempt status of an Episcopal church in Pasadena, CA, whose pastor stated that “Bush’s doctrine of preemptive war is a failed doctrine” just before the 2004 election. Conservative churches that campaigned for Bush in 2004 were not audited. The IRS also has a history of singling out gay rights organizations. Do you remember any conservative tears over these challenges to tax-exempt status? Any death threats from liberal churches or gay groups? I don’t.
It’s also an open question as to what Darrell Issa (R-CA) was thinking when he asked the IRS to “narrowly focus on Tea Party organizations” before going on to hold hearings about why the IRS appeared (at least in conservative media) to narrowly focus on Tea Party organizations.
Now that Lois Lerner, whose duty was to catch tax cheaters, may have circumvented official government policy in order to do what she thought was the right thing, conservatives are suddenly fans of (“big”) government policy. I suppose government is tyranny only when your pet ox is gored. (If she broke the law, she should face the legally mandated penalty, and I would hope that “Law and Order” Republicans would agree with me, not seek extrajudicial execution for a non-capital crime.)
It’s important to consider both sides of the balance sheet. If the outraged conservatives threatening Lois Lerner and her co-defendants with death had known about all the potentially non-partisan groups that the IRS scrutinized, or Issa’s role in creating the controversy he condemned, perhaps this manufactured “scandal” wouldn’t be clogging the court system four years later. However, when roughly half of our fellow Americans go in for “newsy” entertainment that caters to conservative confirmation bias, perhaps this is the outcome we, if not Lois Lerner, deserve.
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