If I had to recommend five must read blogs, Wall Street on Parade would be one of them. Today, Pam Martens exposes a bit of skullduggery buried in the bill that kept the government funded. (As an aside, how low have we sunk when we can consider a Speaker of the House a success because he manages to keep the government running?) Anyway, back to Ms. Martens:
Corporate front groups got a big fat Christmas present in the recently passed Omnibus spending bill. Congress is hoping that voters are too distracted with holiday preparations to look at the fine print in its more than 2,000 pages.
We were winding our way through its copious contents when we stumbled upon its section on the IRS. Somehow this so-called “spending” bill has legislated into law a right-wing vendetta against the Internal Revenue Service. For example, the IRS is effectively stripped of its ability to writes new rules on 501©(4) organizations. Those organizations are increasingly being used as corporate-funded political front groups masquerading as social welfare organizations: The new Omnibus law reads as follows:
“During fiscal year 2016: (1) none of the funds made available in this or any other Act may be used by the Department of the Treasury, including the Internal Revenue Service, to issue, revise, or finalize any regulation, revenue ruling, or other guidance not limited to a particular taxpayer relating to the standard which is used to determine whether an organization is operated exclusively for the promotion of social welfare for purposes of section 501©(4) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 (including the proposed regulations published at 78 Fed. Reg. 71535 (November 29, 2013)); and (2) the standard and definitions as in effect on January 1, 2010, which are used to make such determinations shall apply after the date of the enactment of this Act for purposes of determining status under section 501©(4) of such Code of organizations created on, before, or after such date.”
Being a big Monty Python fan, I always look at the bright side of life, except when I don’t, which we won’t talk about at the moment. The fact is, the IRS wouldn’t have done anything about the plutocrats even if Congress had passed something encouraging it to do so, so really Ms. Martens should cool her outrage. Other than illustrating once again that Congress is wholly owned by the Koch Brothers and their ilk, this statute accomplishes nothing. No harm, no foul.
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