Page 22 - C 4 News Today

Starting in 2010 a number of democratic senators, democratic senators sent letters to the irs asking them to investigate various groups that they said were seeking tax exempt status but were improve involved in politics. in october of 2010 you sent a letter to the irs in which you talked about going after groups but you only mentioned one specifically by name and i want to put up this from the october 2010 letter that you wrote to the irs. one organization whose activities appear to be inconsist...

Know when the week began. >> well, on the irs scandal i learned to file for c-4 tax status you can just assert it. they are behaving like they have and nobody has challenged it. so all the groups that have been challenged are saps. they didnt have to file. and steve miller said it was his idea to have her ask someone in an audience, to ask her the question. he thought it was a good way to get ahead of the story. now if thats what they know about pub lig relations and media, it tells you how they...

Were really ridiculous. however, i think what we really could work together on is the inspector general report had some very specific recommendations. especially around the definit n definitions we have on the 501 c-4, the number of people who filed for the tax exempt status has doubled. so there clearly are problems according to the report whether something is exclusively or primarily in these tax exempt status, or if theyre political operations. and it is not clear. so i think where the employ...

Something this badly. now, i want to be very clear, the irs has an obligation to investigate. i dont like your use of the word "target." if you file and request tax exempt status and you write on your application were going to be engaged in political activity, the irs is required by congress to investigate you. on the other hand, congress has also said you can declare youre a 501 c-4 organization, we need to fix this. my column says you can fix this with eight words, all they have to do is put i...

And you just cant bungle something this badly. now, i want to be very clear, the irs has an obligation to investigate. i dont like your use of the word "target." if you file a request tax exempt status and write on your application were going to be engaged in political activity, irs is required by congress to investigate you, on the other hand, congress has also said you can declare youre a 501 c-4 organization, we need to fix that. my column says you can fix this with eight words, all they have...

Was authorized to do, but lerner took it upon herself to do this. and you just cant bungle something this badly. now, i want to be very clear, the irs has an obligation to investigate. i dont like your use of the word "target." if you file a request tax exempt status and write on your application were going to be engaged in political activity, irs is required by congress to investigate you, on the other hand, congress has also said you can declare youre a 501 c-4 organization, we need to fix tha...

Take up the -- >> do we have an hour? >> proposal that you raised which is that the democrats in congress proposed the act that there was a time where disclosure was a bipartisan solution. remember 527s used to not disclose. then there was a 527 disclosure bill which was a bipartisan bill. it was supported by democrats and republicans alike. democrats proposed the act as a way to disincentivize one type of tax entity versus another. 527 or 501-c-4. without it create a relatively equal playing fi...

Bernstein made, again, i just -- interested me because if the reality of the supreme court decision is the money will be out there and we are basically seeing unlimited money in politics now, except it is taking different forms, not directly going into mitt romneys campaign, but it is popping up in a 501-c-4 and super pac, something like that. you put that in the sunlight it goes to the campaign directly and not fudging it and no cuteness. we know who you are giving to, we know you are. we say t...

Were not allowed to influence elections but now are. the supreme court when they allowed this money to go in, assumed it would be disclosed. and yet it is not. the congress can take really common sense steps to, a, pass entirely disclosure legislation that would disincentivize people from setting up the c-4 groups which can serve as the vehicles for dark money. c-4 groups spend $250 million on those types of ads in the 2012 election without telling the american public who was funding their sou...

Looking after -- groups on the right, right now thinks the irs is really out to get them. and yet, it is the irs right now thats charged with overseeing these groups with all the -- money is sort of proliferating. is it -- feasible that we are going to get any reforms since the irs is going to have to implement this in the reform? >> at least people are talking about it. i mean, feel like last year i was covering the subject the entire year and a lot of times you felt like you were right into th...