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The IRS and the Drive to Stop Free Speech
WSJ ^ | 5-21-13 | David Rivkin and Lee Casey

Posted on 05/21/2013 4:35:03 AM PDT by TurboZamboni

This IRS politicization is not an isolated problem. It is an inevitable result of the broader efforts to regulate and, in fact, suppress political speech.

The IRS crackdown on tax-exemption approvals for conservative groups was directed at nonprofit social-welfare groups, often called 501(c)(4)s after the Internal Revenue Code section granting them tax-exempt status. Such groups do not have to disclose their donors and are exempt from most taxation, although donations to them generally aren't tax deductible.

Social-welfare organizations are permitted to engage in a range of political activities promoting their causes or beliefs, so long as these activities aren't their "primary purpose." This has been generally understood to mean that they must spend less than 50% of their total resources on political activities.

The IRS had little interest in 501(c)(4) political activities until the 2002 McCain-Feingold campaign-finance reform.

(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: 501c4; citizensunited; conservativegroups; corruption; democrats; donttreadonme; govtabuse; irs; irsbrownshirts; lerner; loislerner; mccainfeingold; obama; speech; tyranny; waronliberty

1 posted on 05/21/2013 4:35:03 AM PDT by TurboZamboni
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To: TurboZamboni


2 posted on 05/21/2013 4:45:23 AM PDT by TurboZamboni (Marx smelled bad & lived with his parents most his life.)
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To: TurboZamboni
Abolish the IRS forever

Obama used his IRS to rig the election:Obama used his IRS to prevent tea party groups from getting stared.

Why do democrats trust government? Are you insane you stupid democrats/liberals?

The fact that we the people didn't know that the IRS was targeting conservative groups for 3 years shows that government is unaccountable and must be limited to only the military and border control and that's it. We can get whatever we need from the free market (and that stuff actually works too unlike gov crap) and we don't have to slaves of an agency like the IRS to get some stupid benefit like government he3althcare which doesn't work and we'll be repressed sheep to get it

3 posted on 05/21/2013 4:58:27 AM PDT by Democrat_media (IRS rigged election for Obama and democrats by shutting down tea party)
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To: TurboZamboni

We need to feed the Liberal’s excuse for the IRS, AP back to them without cease “The government is too large to control.”


4 posted on 05/21/2013 5:04:58 AM PDT by Makana
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To: TurboZamboni

A caller to Rush made a point that these IRS revelations may not be confessions so much as warnings to any tea partiers who may want to participate in next year’s Congressional elections.

It’s plausible, given the timing.

Robert Heinlein wrote that we should not mistake stupidity for malice, but that we shouldn’t rule out malice. Are they malicious, or are they stupid, and are they mutually exclusive?


5 posted on 05/21/2013 5:11:15 AM PDT by Daveinyork (."Trusting government with power and money is like trusting teenaged boys with whiskey and car keys,)
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To: Daveinyork

malicious till caught, then claim stupidity.


6 posted on 05/21/2013 6:24:42 AM PDT by TurboZamboni (Marx smelled bad & lived with his parents most his life.)
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To: TurboZamboni
he ultimate cure for these abuses is to unshackle political speech by all groups

Wrong. The problem is the existence and power of the IRS. Corruption is a function of the size and power, not statutory or rightful duties, of government entities. This is true of all government agencies, bureaus, and other government entities from local zoning boards right on up.

7 posted on 05/21/2013 7:38:04 AM PDT by arthurus (Read Hazlitt's Economics In One Lesson ONLINE www.fee.org/library/books/economics-in-one-lesson)
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