by Shannon Argueta
Any hope that the I.R.S. would crack
down on “dark money” donors who have created tax exempt nonprofit groups
for political purposes before the 2016 election is gone. The
commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service, John Koskinen, told a
House committee meeting on Thursday that there were no plans in the
works for new regulations before the upcoming elections.
Donors
use these tax-exempt organizations because there is no accountability
and little paper trail that reveals who is donating to them; the perfect
way to funnel money to causes without leaving any fingerprints.
Koskinen later gave reporters an unbelievable explanation as to why the
I.R.S. was not going to do its job and change the tax code:
“I don’t want people thinking we are trying to get these regs done so we can influence the election.”
His
announcement comes on the heels of another decision earlier this year
in which the commissioner said he would allow the political
organizations who have disguised themselves as nonprofit “social
welfare” groups to keep their tax exempt status as long as they only
spend up to 49 percent of their revenue on political activity.
The
IRS has been under attack from the Republican cabal ever since they began
investigating just where the teabagger covens came from, and where the
war-chests that toppled mainstream Republicans from their seats and
began rapidly radicalizing American politics. The Republican cabal erupted in
self-righteous fury, accusing the IRS of bias and that wingnut
‘nonprofits’ were being unfairly targeted by the I.R.S. Even though it
was quickly discovered the left-leaning groups were given the same
scrutiny that teabagger covens were given, but that didn’t stop the
hysterical cries of victimization and government overreach that
fulfilled their purpose- to draw attention away from the puppet masters-
the Koch Brothers. Since then, the Republican cabal has been steadily cutting away
funding from the I.R.S, hindering them from fulfilling their most basic
functions..
Now, they are backing down from the Kochs and their
dirty dollars once again. It is absolutely infuriating that Koskinen is
not going to crack down on these cabals, especially when you find out
just how much money they are illegally spending on political activities.
According to the Center for Responsive Politics (OpenSecrets.org) these
nonprofit organizations exploded after the Supreme Court’s Citizens
United ruling in 2010. In 2006, spending from these dark money fueled
nonprofits was just under $5.2 million in 2006, but in 2012, just two
years after the SCOTUS ruling, it was over $300 million. This next
cycle, they are planning to shell out a jaw-dropping $900 million to
tilt the odds in their favor.
This is horrendous news for the
fate of our elections. Not only do we have the I.R.S. not taking any
action to punish illegal activities, but we have the Federal Election
Commission completely unable to enact any kind of reform because of the
Republicans on the board. With both the I.R.S. and F.E.C. paralyzed by
Republican cabal obstructionism, big money has been given a free pass to
take over
our elections, potentially drowning out the rest of America. This is
why it is so important that a Democrat wins the upcoming election; after
four more years, the damage to our democracy might be irreversible.
Have you ever wondered about the person the Smithsonian Institution was named after? It’s a rather peculiar story.
