Is the Obama Administration using the IRS to silence dissent from groups like the Tea Party?
According to a report posted at The Blaze, a number of Tea Party groups across the country have received a demand for information that includes - among other things - a hardcopy printout of the group's website and hardcopy printouts of any social media interaction.
Tom Zawistokowski, president of the Ohio Liberty Council, posted a letter with a list of demands he received from the IRS.
According to The Blaze, he wrote:
My own Portage County TEA Party has been waiting for over a year just to get a response from the IRS so we can file our 2010 tax return! In the attached PDF I share with you, the “Additional Information Requested” of the Ohio Liberty Council from our June 30th, 2010 application which we just received on January 30, 2012. Yes, they took a year and a half to respond to our application and they are giving us two weeks to respond back. As you will see, this is no simple request.
That PDF file can be seen here.
The IRS demands, for example, an "updated narrative description of activities" since the group filed for a non-profit status on June 30, 2010, and they want all the excruciating details, like: "who conducted it, their qualifications, who was allowed to take part in the activities and how they were selected, was there a fee? (how much)"
Zawistokowski adds:
The IRS also wants to know about the members of the group and their roles and more, asking specifically for the “name, address, and corporate federal ID of all organizations that are members of our organization.”
But that's not all. The letter added:
Public events are also under scrutiny with the IRS demanding to know the time, location and content schedule of each event.
Copies of any and all handouts must be included.
Names and credentials of all instructors and copies of any workshop materials used.
All speakers must be identified and copies of every speech must be included.
The IRS is even demanding to know if any candidate forums were held, the names of the candidates who participated, and what issues were discussed.
According to the cover letter received by the OLC, all of this information will be posted on the Internet.
One has to ask: Why would the government want to know what issues were discussed by candidates at a forum, and why would the government post that on the Internet?
Mike Opelka writes:
Does that sound like a threat? Anyone who is part of a non-profit or even has attended a gathering held by a non-profit will have their information posted on the internet by the government. It makes you wonder if the same information will be asked of other non-profits?
Opelka notes that the demands have been made of Tea Party groups across the country, and all at about the same time:
This is not an isolated incident either. The timing of the IRS demands also makes you wonder about their intent. Tea Party groups across the country have written to us sharing similar information. One Texas group filed their application for non-profit status in late 2007, but only received the information demand letter last month. As stated above, the Ohio Liberty Council submitted paperwork over 18 months ago, their demand was received at the end of January. Florida groups (who we have spoken with, but have requested anonymity) report similar experiences.
Many different groups applied for non-profit status at very different times – (over a three year period) and yet, they all seem to have gotten the IRS replies within the last month.
He also notes the timing of the letters, sent out so close to the announcement of Obama's so-called "Truth Teams."
"If the White House wants to silence the independent voices that played such an important role in the 2010 mid-term elections, all they would need to do is shut down the Tea Parties and other like-minded voices that have just started to find their footing. The IRS’s well-timed requests for mountains of documents from so many Tea Party groups appears to be one such effort," he writes.
"This government is going to be making this request of your business, your church, your hospital, your doctor, your favorite charity, your boy scout troop, Your gun club, and you," Zawistokowski wrote.
He asks: "Is this the kind of America you want to live in?"
Most of us would answer "no," but it is the America that Obama and the Democrats seek to create. Call it "fundamental transformation."
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