The Real Problem Behind The IRS Scandal

[finnbow]

Originally Posted by icenine

It is the best of both worlds for "corporations".....they can donate all they want to a campaign, but cannot be prosecuted like an individual. I mean can someone put GM or Walmart in jail? Brillantly evil....

we really need to deep six Citizen's United for the benefit of both parties and democracy.

Not only can corporations donate anonymously to the (c)(4) groups, so can foreign corporations and individuals. It becomes an effective means to launder foreign money intended for use in our domestic politics.

[Charles]

Originally Posted by finnbow

Not only can corporations donate anonymously to the (c)(4) groups, so can foreign corporations and individuals. It becomes an effective means to launder foreign money intended for use in our domestic politics.

Money is the life blood of politics. And our boys and girls aren't going to do anything of consequence to change that, because they like things as they are.

If you're not bought and paid for from the get go, you'll never be allowed to run for anything much beyond dogcatcher.

Chas

[whell]

Originally Posted by icenine

Mike,
The Citizen's United case sort of opened this can of worms. It has to be seen in that light. If all of a sudden there is a huge increase in groups applying for tax-exempt status then how would they (IRS) go about making sure they were legit?

Chicken or the egg. Which came first: the asinine IRS regs, of the opportunistic exploitation of them? If our political elite didn't create the can of worms, no one would have opened the can.

[bobabode]

Originally Posted by Charles

Money is the life blood of politics. And our boys and girls aren't going to do anything of consequence to change that, because they like things as they are.

If you're not bought and paid for from the get go, you'll never be allowed to run for anything much beyond dogcatcher.

Chas

Eggzactimundo. Bidness as usual.

[merrylander]

I feel for people that work at the IRS, we use a tax accountant because I simply would go nuts trying to fill out that mess they call the tax forms. Imagine the poor sod who has to validate them.

[bobabode]

Originally Posted by finnbow

Here's a good op-ed piece on the subject in which it asserts that the squirrelyness of the 501(c)(4) exemption makes problems such all this all but unavoidable. His recommendation?

Let’s get rid of 501(c)(4) status. Encourage nonprofits to forswear political activity and become 501(c)(3)s. If they can’t stomach political chastity, let them become 527s: groups still exempt from taxes but required to disclose their donors.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinio...7_story_2.html

Seems like a no-brainer to me.

Originally Posted by icenine

It is the best of both worlds for "corporations".....they can donate all they want to a campaign, but cannot be prosecuted like an individual. I mean can someone put GM or Walmart in jail? Brillantly evil....

we really need to deep six Citizen's United for the benefit of both parties and democracy.

Originally Posted by finnbow

Not only can corporations donate anonymously to the (c)(4) groups, so can foreign corporations and individuals. It becomes an effective means to launder foreign money intended for use in our domestic politics.

This^ is the solution.

The real culprit in this is Chief Justice Roberts and his merry band of brothers. When a narrow ruling would have sufficed in the Citizen's United case, Robert's sent back the agreed to compromise back to the defending lawyers and instructed them to broaden it to include corporations as people.

[bobabode]

Originally Posted by whell

Or, let's forget about tax exempt status for all of them. Easiest solution of all.

Religious groups, too. No more political sermonizing from the pulpit. See, we can agree on some things, Mike.

[whell]

Originally Posted by bobabode

Religious groups, too. No more political sermonizing from the pulpit. See, we can agree on some things, Mike.

I have no problem with that. We have no need to subsidize our freedoms. ANY of them.

[icenine]

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationwo...,4833667.story



great article

[bobabode]

Originally Posted by whell

Chicken or the egg. Which came first: the asinine IRS regs, of the opportunistic exploitation of them? If our political elite didn't create the can of worms, no one would have opened the can.

It was a Republican IRS comissoner under Ike who changed the rules, Mike. There's your elite chicken who laid the egg. Exclusively was changed to primarily by the Republicants and it was CJ Roberts (another Republicant) who sent back a narrowly crafted ruling in the Citizen's United case with the request that it be expanded to read that corporations are people.
The result being that conservative groups in overwhelming numbers flooded the IRS with 501(c)(4) during the time in question.
To add insult to injury, during the Bush/Cheney years staffing was cut back at the IRS.