IRS To Get ‘License To Kill’ Groups That Oppose Obama

WASHINGTON, January 7, 2014 — The Internal Revenue Service is getting a special new power: a “license to kill” groups that oppose the Obama agenda. James Bond’s license to kill isn’t nearly as broad.

The power to tax is the power to destroy. Its new powers will let the IRS destroy certain groups, especially those connected to the Tea Party, by imposing a tax on their work and messages during campaign seasons. Even the value of volunteer work could be taxed.

Suspicion traces the plan directly to President Barack Obama, since he personally met with IRS chief counsel William Wilkins — an Obama political appointee and long-time supporter — in the Roosevelt Room of the White House on April 23, 2012, two days before the IRS issued its key internal directives to target Tea Party and other conservative groups.

Now, unless Congress acts quickly to block them, new IRS regulations will deliver a death penalty to many of almost 100,000 grass-roots non-profits known as 501(c)(4) groups. They often provide information to the public about political issues, befitting their tax requirement to benefit social welfare.

The IRS wants to create a new bureaucratic definition that re-labels those common voter information activities by re-naming them “candidate-related political activity.” For short, IRS calls it CRPA, but CRAP would fit better.

This is actually a gag rule. But the IRS’s new speech restrictions do not apply to labor unions, trade associations, political parties, or other non-profit groups such as 501(c)(3)’s. The impact is limited to the 501(c)(4)’s, which are the favorite vehicle for Tea Party groups.

The Left also has 501(c)(4) non-profits which could be muzzled by the new rules. But the Obama Administration is notorious for selective enforcement, meaning it could choose to give a pass to friendly groups while it puts conservatives out of business. They could use this in efforts to shut down groups like the Faith and Freedom Coalition, Club for Growth, Americans for Prosperity and the National Rifle Association, while ignoring People for the American Way, American Civil Liberties Union, USAction and the Democratic Leadership Council.

Here’s how the IRS’s new license to kill would work:

• Anything that mentions or has any connection to a candidate or public official is deemed restricted speech (CRPA), even when it otherwise meets the organization’s goals. Details of all communications must be reported to the IRS whenever it occurs within 60 days of a general election or within 30 days of primaries.
• The restrictions also apply regarding procedures to select party officers, such as a precinct, district or state party chairman, plus nominations or confirmations of an appointed official such as a judge, agency head or cabinet officer.
• These communications must all be reported to the IRS so they can be compiled, catalogued and taxed. Donations made during those periods would be treated 100 percent as campaign contributions, and taxed.

Also newly-restricted are:

• Voter registration drives
• Candidate forums and debates
• Voter guides
• Voting record listings of incumbents
• Public statements by officers and leaders of (c)(4)’s that reference incumbents and candidates

Under a pretense of being reasonable, the rules create traps. For example, adding restrictions “within 30 days of a primary election” becomes a permanent election year restriction for a national group, since elections are staggered throughout the calendar among the states and Internet material is available from anywhere.

The IRS’s goal clearly is not regulation, guidance or disclosure of political activity, but outright suppression of it. It’s an elaborate excuse to justify removing the First Amendment rights of those who oppose Obama’s agenda.

Big money groups aren’t the true targets; they can always re-organize into some other form to avoid restrictions on 501(c)(4) groups. The hardest impact will be on grass-roots organizations, which depend on smaller donors and lots of volunteers.

The plan is not yet set in concrete. The regulations were published just after Thanksgiving and must go through a public comment period that expires February 27. Every citizen has the right to comment. The simplest way is:

• Go to the federal website www.regulations.gov
• Access docket “IRS Reg-134417-13”
• Click on the “Comment Now!” button
• Have your say.