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Conservative groups that were improperly targeted by the IRS are going to court against the government.
This is the CitizenLink Report, I'm Stuart Shepard along with Bruce Hausknecht
who follows the courts for us. Hi, Bruce.
Hi, Stuart.
What's coming out of the hearing so far should have every American sitting on the edge of
their seats concerned about what's happening in Washington.
Yeah. This is an agency of the Executive Branch of Government that has run amuck. We have
found out since earlier this year that over 300 conservative groups have been essentially
been "slow-walked" through the IRS application process for tax exemption. The IRS has been
audited by its own inspector general that works for the treasury department and what
he has found and what he has reported through his audit and through his testimony is that
this is an unprecedented action by the IRS against conservative groups. He says he hasn't
seen anything like it since the Nixon era.
Now one interesting aspect of this which you've been pointing out is, the groups were not
denied their status --they were just slowed down. Tell us why that's important.
Well if someone had been rejected they would have a reason to sue - the rejected parties
- but of the three hundred -- approximately three hundred organization applications that
he audited, he said that 108 had been approved and that 28 were withdrawn mostly because
they were tired of going through the process and that left 160 applications open.
None had been denied because once you deny something you give someone a cause of action to file
a complaint, go to congress and cause a ruckus.
Something that will show up -- something that might make it into the papers.
That's right. Now if you keep promising that you can get your tax exemption if you give
us twelve hundred more documents or promise this, then we'll look at it.
So here, out another form, send it to us and we'll get back to you.
And part of the reason this worked I think is because most non-profit groups don't want
to put in their newsletter -- don' want to send out to folks who follow them
-- "hey,l we're being audited," "hey, were trying to get our tax exempt status but it's dragging
on and on" because it gives the impression that you might be doing something wrong.
Now we've seen an interesting dynamic. Groups all over are coming out and saying "hey look,
we're on the list too" and now it's actually become in a weird sense a bit of a positive
for non-profits.
Well that is true and once you realize that you're part of a larger group that is being
targeted by the federal government, there is this sort of coming together and that's
what essentially caused the Tea Party movement to come up in prominence in 2010 anyways and
that's what most of these groups are.
One of the groups that has been getting some attention is called "True The Vote."
They started in Houston, Texas but then became more of a national movement. They have a very
simple goal in mind, they just want to make sure that when people vote they're actually
citizens -- actually have a pulse -- actually that the address they put on the registration
is a house, not a vacant lot. You know that sort of thing. Well Catherine Engelbright,
who's the President and Founder of that organization,says "the 2012 election was an eye opening experience."
"It was really the first time that we took that national stage in politics and our goal
was to make an impact on the debate of an election that would go on to become one of
the most expensive and most polarizing that we've had in the history of our country.
It was amazing to see how quickly this organic movement spread." "As our effort grew and
our research made national headlines, it was encouraging to see that the country was on
our side. Now with November behind us, what we are seeing is that the effort to derail
citizen engagement is more organized that is has ever been."
Now it's worth pointing out that not only was her organization hit with an audit, but
that she personally was as well.
Yes, that's right. She and her husband own a business and it manufactures things and
suddenly besides the trouble with the IRS she was getting phone calls from the FBI.
They had an investigation going on of one of her employees and then OSHA showed up and
wanted to investigate whether her facilities were safe and gave her a huge fine to some
$25,000. Who else showed up? The Texas version of the environmental protection agency showed
up and said, hey, you're not in compliance -- you need to spend another $40,000 building
some storage sheds for your process so she had the full weight of government come down
on her in the two years following.
Just coincidentally, it just all sort of happened in that window of time. You know I can see
lightning hitting a house once, but hitting the house five times for five different storms
in the same two-year period? No, that doesn't happen.
And as we mentioned, the organization was audited. Their business was audited. I mean
the IRS showed up on their doorstep as well. That's kind of a rough year for anybody and
but that's apparently been echoed over and over again around the country.
Now one interesting aspect of this -- the articles that I've been reading in the main
stream media -- I've been reading more than I ought to -- will go so far as to say well
the actions of the IRS to slow down the process of getting your proper non-profit status worked
to hurt these groups as far as raising money, but they kind of stopped there. But the real
impact of this was all about the 2012 election. It had to do with keeping conservative voices
out of the conversation during an election season.
Well yes and it even goes back to the 2010 interim elections too because a lot of these
tea party groups came to being in that year prior to the two thousand and ten elections
which proved to be a big sweep of Congress for Republican candidates so yes, it has definitely
impacted the election process.
Let's talk a bit about the breath of the groups that have been hit by this. Many now as we
just have talked about a couple minutes ago are coming forward saying, "We were hit too
- we were hit too."
I know. Since this came to light we've heard from Bill Graham Evangelistic Association
and Franklin Graham's organization -- Samaritans Purse and another newspaper in North Carolina
called the Biblical Recorder that's been around for a hundred and thirty-three years.
Those organizations were audited for the very first time by the IRS following some ads that they
ran in the newspaper supporting North Carolina's marriage amendment that was approved by the
voters a year ago. And it's just amazing that the coincidence of a three organization audit
would happen just following some newspaper ads that those organizations put in the paper
saying vote your values.
And we can't say too many times only conservative organizations were hit. Liberal groups appeared
to have a quick path through the IRS and got all the paperwork done and were out there
doing probably far more political activity than they should be doing under their non-profit status.
Meanwhile conservative groups are being hit over and over again. And by that,
ask yourself this: Do you believe that marriage is the union of a man and a woman?
Do you believe that life is sacred and that babies in the womb should be protected? Do you believe
in all the things conservatism stands for in the broader sense including that we should
be a nation founded upon the constitution? A lot of folks support gun rights and are
very active on that particular issue. Those are the groups that were targeted exclusively.
Right. In fact there's a story being reported out there that Obama's half-brother
President Obama's half-brother from Kenya filed an application for 501c3 tax exempt foundation. His application
was approved in one-month and it was back dated two-and-a half years so that donors
to his foundation could get a tax exempt receipt going back two-and-a half years which I understand
exceeds the power of the IRS to even grant. So, yes.
What needs to happen?
Well there's a new commissioner -- Danny Werfel is the new IRS commissioner who...
Acting commissioner
Acting commissioner appointed after Doug Shulman resigned and he has promised to get to the
bottom of this. He is not with the IRS previous to this so hopefully his promise to clean
up the IRS, bring it to light, find out who is violating the law because it appears some
federal laws have been violated, fire people, we need to find out whose broken the laws
and send a few people to jail over this thing. It's that serious.
Alright Bruce, thank you for your insights -- appreciate it.
Sure.
And we appreciate hearing from you. You may always write to us at Mail@Citizenlink.com.
We appreciate your comments, your questions, your criticisms are welcome as well.
We do read every note that comes in ever though we don't always get to respond to all of them,
we do read everyone personally when it gets here. We encourage you to pray for the members
of Congress who are heading up these hearings that are going on. Pray that they would have
the ability to ask the insightful question -- the incisive question that will help cut
to the heart of this so that we can get some truth of about what actually went on and what
needs to happen next. And remember: Stand Tall and Be Heard!