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on the line with us to use cary kinney and he is
listen attorney for common cause common cause
dot org course the uh... website
uh... eric welcome back to program welcomed the program
uh...
great to have you with us
uh... what's the latest with alex the american legislative exchange council
this uh...
uh... right wing front group for big corporations and so
heavily funded by the coat brothers
well for years our are getting away with it
you know claiming to be an educational charity and in fact is uh... simply
nothing more than a lobbying organization as you mentioned for
rightwing conservative causes and common cause has
uh... called them out
uh... reported them to the i_r_s_ and uh... at the i_r_s_ too
undertake investigation and an examination
and to deny ape-like
five oh one c_ three non-profit that a and also to go after the corporations
who have been deducting their lobbying expenses
when they make contributions to alec they they claim they're making
charitable contributions in the taxpayers
are essentially footing the bill this is but this is
taxpayers subsidize lobbying which is against
against the rules and uh... violate internal revenue code amazing alexa
course uh... having brought us not only a whole raft of laws that make it easier
for companies to pollute one night
but also the stand your ground should first law and also the voter uh... all
you want to vote heroes but you're a student
now you can't have a bad idea is no good all you are hoping you're eighty years
although sorry gotta drive down to the drive into the bid to the driver's
license that you about your disabled icam-1 later i'm sorry you can't but
they're in charge of those laws to
that's right that that the number of other than a lot of social legislation
although a bit
you know in response to the pressure but common cause in their corporate that
some other corporate funders pulling the plug
they've now shut down that supposedly there
their social uh...
agenda and nurses strictly focusing on
putting more money into the pockets of their corporate dollars right after the
verdict dot nissen place another twenty states
on just justin just for our listeners who minot north or the rickety in his
with an attorney with common cause can cost upwards to a checkup doors and
support the work that they're doing
um... the while we often associate the coat brothers with with uh... alec the
american legislative exchange council being actually found that it was started
by a fellow named paul weyrich com i'm guessing you're familiar with this uh...
eric
and uh... and paul where it was a strategist for ronald reagan
and i'd like to play it with a week if i may have your permission to take twenty
seconds i was interviewed
a people with their here is paul weyrich in nineteen eighty
speaking to a group of republicans who were working on behalf of ronald ray in
uh... in a church republican christian activists
uh... and you can hear the echo of this modern-day voter disenfranchisement
legislation this is paul we work from thirty years ago
parker
have what i call the kuku syndrome
corrupt government
they want everybody cobol
i don't want everybody to vote
election's are not won by a majority of people that never happened from the
beginning of our country and they are not uh...
as a matter of fact our leverage in the election quite candidly go about evo
calling populist rolled down
that's the fundamental
yellow that pretty much summed up
their attitude toward a number of these issue that they pursue
and you know what what i think it very troubling for common cause is not just
it's not just a few really their politics it's that they are
having taxpayers pay
to have these kind of all others
lobbied
and so in algeria effect on goes into the some obvious some
politician buffet on capitol hill and they pay day we i'd like to put on a
right thumb tack great tax legislation with you and let's get a exxon some tax
breaks
but by the you know eckstein cancer that from their taxes but they have exactly
the famed conversation on a beach someplace
at an out junket
now accent gonna write that often fail either i was actually the those expense
as were terrible contribution
man not only that various states spend hundreds of thousands of dollars a year
sending
my largely republican legislators
to these ape-like
the junkets where they said on the beach in
uh... write legislation with the with the exxon mobil lobbyists
that's absolutely right and and and claim that they're doing you know
charity work
uh... an educational work ended it's really
just absurd for alex to take that position they they their lawyer says all
they do is research and analysis nonpartisan research and analysis well
you look at their by-laws and you know that that's completely false their
by-laws say
that they're calling is
do you have and to develop un edta legislative action agenda
sask research in an altitude action and down really what they've been doing
now we've been seen
largely since the reagan administration but aggressively since the first george
bush administration he put his son in charge of
reaching out to the evangelical christian community
and they started organizing injury falwell and all that whole crowd you
know can about the late eighties and and early nineties
and and then it really went on steroids to the jurors w_ bush administration the
politicization of religion
based as religious organizations which are equally tax-exempt
and the i_r_s_ has been
pretty wary about pulling anybody's tax-exempt status even when they
a you know right from the pulpit they they call for particular types of votes
what makes you think that the i_r_s_ might
suddenly start enforcing the law
after
it seems to me and correct me if i'm wrong on this and i may be way off
but it seems to me like for decades uh... nonprofit organizations have been
getting away with this kind of stuff
well there there are certain organizations a sometimes their
religious organizations
uh... bit intentionally uh... engage in a lot of political activity
uh... under the rubric of advancing their religious
on the i_r_s_'s dinners are going after them that's true com i think they are
worried about the political hornets nest they may stir up
we think alec is a bit
because
it's not just that you have a non-profit that'd engaged in political activity
you have quart beret shins here bidder damping corporate agenda
and deducting it it's not if i like to have a some people in a congregation
that are taking to making donations to their church in taking the deduction and
in the church goes out and uh... some
political work
this is really acc warp a rations
that using alexa as a way
to make tax-deductible lobbying
contribution
and so that's what i think is a lot difference money-laundering operation
exactly exactly that is just what this is the it is it is money-laundering it
is taxpayers subsidize loving
by corporations that too
the contributors to our current hot plate
you know individual mom and pop
that not who did you know it's it's not a so it seems like a life on bill
if i have a t_n_t_
part of my money
part of my bill is is going to to alec
and in one and pay my taxes
that you know my taxes are higher than they would have been a ***
wasn't there if there's a t_n_t_ actually had to do had uh... had uh...
do tax deducted non tax-deductible lobby that's right you're going to double
whammy if you're if you're paying for the services at the corporation
and your taxpayer you're getting hit twice
i'm getting screwed choice
so let's call it what is this is uh... you know i'd edit it really is
it kinda narita i do think the i_r_s_
where you have corporations were deducting hundreds of thousands of
dollars in contributions from their taxes as opposed to some member of the
congregation that cannot deduct their it you know fifty dollar donation we're not
gonna make a difference to the i_r_s_
so way where is we have just a minute left your eric where is this right now
well there's a there's a very formalized profit at the i_r_s_ as for these
the whistleblowers submissions
there's a screening because i'm a bill see if it uh... path is kind of the
initial look to make sure looks credible and and persuasive and then if so it'll
be sent out to the field too for the examiners to do an audit um... they
tended go very slowly and methodically so we may not be any results for the
next few years but al accused hamas corporations who are being audited by
the i_r_s_
they're gonna now and and it may be that information comes out when they were
forthcoming patients at nine looking forward to thirty a_m_ uh... with
concours interest
concours common cause that work for the greater the decisions doing great work
here in the united states well worthy of your support character i so much for
being with us
becky people of the great work of the suspected with that