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- Apr 5, 2009
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Lefties have been saying for years and years that churches, charities, et al, that involve themselves in politics should lose their tax-exempt status -- maybe this rightwing alignment with what the left has been calling for for years will bring it to fruition?
You asked for "a valid example of similar corruption from the Bush administration" hereya go...
While few are defending the Internal Revenue Service for targeting some 300 conservative groups, there are two critical pieces of context missing from the conventional wisdom on the scandal. First, at least from what we know so far, the groups were not targeted in a political vendetta but rather were executing a makeshift enforcement test (an ugly one, mind you) for IRS employees tasked with separating political groups not allowed to claim tax-exempt status, from bona fide social welfare organizations. Employees are given almost zero official guidance on how to do that, so they went after Tea Party groups because those seemed like they might be political. Keep in mind, the commissioner of the IRS at the time was a Bush appointee.
The second is that while this is the first time this kind of thing has become a national scandal, its not the first time such activity has occurred.
I wish there was more GOP interest when I raised the same issue during the Bush administration, where they audited a progressive church in my district in what look liked a very selective way, California Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff said on MSNBC Monday. I found only one Republican, [North Carolina Rep. Walter Jones], that would join me in calling for an investigation during the Bush administration. Im glad now that the GOP has found interest in this issue and it ought to be a bipartisan concern.
The well-known church, All Saints Episcopal in Pasadena, became a bit of a cause célèbre on the left after the IRS threatened to revoke the churchs tax-exempt status over an anti-Iraq War sermon the Sunday before the 2004 election. Jesus [would say], Mr. President, your doctrine of preemptive war is a failed doctrine, rector George Regas said from the dais.
The church, which said progressive activism was in its DNA, hired a powerful Washington lawyer and enlisted the help of Schiff, who met with the commissioner of the IRS twice and called for a Government Accountability Office investigation, saying the IRS audit violated the First Amendment and was unduly targeting a political opponent of the Bush administration. My client is very concerned that the close coordination undertaken by the IRS allowed partisan political concerns to direct the course of the All Saints examination, church attorney Marcus Owens, who is widely considered one of the countrys leading experts on this area of the law, said at the time. In 2007, the IRS closed the case, decreeing that the church violated rules preventing political intervention, but it did not revoke its nonprofit status.
And while All Saints came under the gun, conservative churches across the country were helping to mobilize voters for Bush with little oversight. In 2006, citing the precedent of All Saints, a group of religious leaders accused the Internal Revenue Service yesterday of playing politics by ignoring its complaint that two large churches in Ohio are engaging in what it says are political activities, in violation of the tax code, the New York Times reported at the time. The churches essentially campaigned for a Republican gubernatorial candidate, they alleged, and even flew him on one of their planes.
Meanwhile, Citizens for Ethics in Washington filed two ethics complaints against a church in Minnesota. You know we cant publicly endorse as a church and would not for any candidate, but I can tell you personally that Im going to vote for Michele Bachmann, pastor Mac Hammond of the Living Word Christian Center in Minnesota said in 2006 before welcoming her to the church. The IRS opened an audit into the church, but it went nowhereafter the church appealed the audit on a technicality.
And it wasnt just churches. In 2004, the IRS went after the NAACP, auditing the nations oldest civil rights group after its chairman criticized President Bush for being the first sitting president since Herbert Hoover not to address the organization. They are saying if you criticize the president we are going to take your tax exemption away from you, then-chairman Julian Bond said. Its pretty obvious that the complainant was someone who doesnt believe George Bush should be criticized, and its obvious of their response that the IRS believes this, too.
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