Proposed IRS rule to silence Tea Party endorsed by group aligned with former IRS head’s wife

Proposed IRS rule to silence Tea Party endorsed by group aligned with former IRS head’s wife

Susan L. Anderson is the “Senior Program Advisor” for Public Campaign, which “works closely” with Common Cause, a group that ‘urged‘ former IRS commissioner Douglas Shulman to ‘investigate activities of conservative donors,’ including “True the Vote,” as discussed at Liberty Unyielding.

Although Common Cause later decried IRS targeting of conservative groups, they are once again pushing their supporters to comment positively on an IRS rule that was “reverse engineered” to silence the Tea Party.

Susan L. Anderson, by the way, happens to be married to former IRS head Doug Shulman. And she has been actively working to overturn the Citizens United v. FEC ruling.

As wryly noted by Andrew Stiles of National Review,

“For a group that complains about money in politics, Public Campaign has spent quite a lot of money to influence the political process.”

 

 

Once the IRS targeting scandal broke in May 2013, Common Cause, who again pushed the IRS to target conservative groups, disingenuously called for Congress to “investigate and address” the “wrongful targeting by the IRS of conservative groups seeking section 501(c)(4) tax-status.”

In written testimony to the House Ways and Means Committee, Common Cause declared in part,

“The people are right to raise hell over biased treatment and unnecessary harassment by the IRS.”

But they have changed their tune, as Common Cause is now pushing their progressive supporters to comment positively on a new IRS rule that would shut down the free speech of conservative groups.

The proposed IRS rule , “Guidance for Tax-Exempt Social Welfare Organizations on Candidate-Related Political Activities” would effectively “…shut up hundreds of groups that pose a direct threat by restricting their ability to speak freely in an election season about spending or ObamaCare or jobs,” as reported last month by Kimberley A. Strassel of the Wall Street Journal.

As previously reported at Liberty Unyielding, this rule stems from the Citizens United ruling, which has been a thorn in the side of progressives who believe that conservative groups (e.g. the Tea Party) will have access to corporate money to use for political advertisements.

Common Cause tells their supporters in part,

“The fight over the proposed rules is not about preventing anyone from speaking out or spending money to influence elections; it’s about making sure that political spending gets disclosed. Even the Supreme Court’s conservative majority recognized the vital public interest in knowing who is bankrolling efforts to influence American voters.” [Emphasis added]

It should be noted that even before the Citizen’s United ruling, non-profit groups were not required to disclose their donors. The progressive groups are obsessed with targeting donors, as is evidenced by the massive attacks on the Koch brothers, who dare to donate to conservative causes.

Big money in politics has been historically reserved for left-leaning groups, such as unions (who are not impacted by this proposed IRS rule).

In order to thwart Citizen’s United, big players in progressive circles have poured millions of dollars into a campaign to “get big money out of politics,” as reported in detail at Tavern Keepers.

For those who say that reversing Citizens United is about “getting big money out of politics,” earlier reporting on the ruling tells a different tale.

Consider the following from a New York Times OpEd on the Citizens United ruling:

“Unleashed by Citizens United, a handful of renegade billionaires made life miserable for Mitt Romney, the establishment candidate…. [and] turned the primary process into an open contest, giving full voice to the more extreme wings dominated by the Tea Party and the evangelical right.” [Emphasis added]

Does the concern here over the “Citizens United” ruling seem to be about “big money in politics?”

Or this, at the Huffington Post,

“The 2010 Citizens United decision and a subsequent lower court ruling opened the door to unlimited independent electoral spending by individuals, corporations and unions. Very conservative groups seized on the opportunity to pump more money into Republican primary elections and ultimately managed to elect some of the stars of the current crisis, including Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Mike Lee (R-Utah) and Rep. Ted Yoho (R-Fla.).” [Emphasis added]

Common Cause has also lauded the Government by the People Act (H.R. 20), which is designed to reverse Citizen’s United. In other words, the Government by the People Act seeks to “get big money out of politics,” which is code for “get big money out of conservative politics,” as discussed at the Examiner.

As reported by Joe Newby at Liberty Unyielding, Susan L. Anderson also worked on President Obama’s 2012 campaign, and was active in the Occupy Wall Street movement.

As an aside, the fact that the mainstream media ignores Doug Shulman’s wife’s highly partisan political activities is an affront to Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, whose wife is constantly attacked for her political activities, as reported at Liberty Unyielding.

This unconstitutional rule is accepting comments until February 27.

Renee Nal

Renee Nal

Renee Nal is a co-founder of TavernKeepers.com, a news and political commentary site founded by former Glenn Beck interns. She is also the National Conservative Examiner. Renee is an associate producer for Trevor Loudon's political documentary, 'The Enemies Within.'

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