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Rough times for Obama? Sure. But Nixonian? Please.

May 17, 2013
Washington Post

By Matthew Dallek

Matthew Dallek is an associate academic director at the University of California Washington Center and the author of “The Right Moment: Ronald Reagan’s First Victory and the Decisive Turning Point in American Politics.”

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An ‘unthinkable’ IRS scandal? More like unavoidable.

May 17, 2013
Washington Post

By Joseph J. Thorndike

Joseph J. Thorndike is a contributing editor for Tax Notes magazine and the author of “Their Fair Share: Taxing the Rich in the Age of FDR.”

“Outrageous,” declared President Obama. “Unthinkable,” said Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.). “Offensive,” said Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.).

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Some Lawmakers Want Big-Budget Groups Included In IRS Debate

May 16, 2013
NPR

by Peter Overby

Tea Party leaders and lawmakers in the House Republicans' Tea Party Caucus rallied Thursday on Capitol Hill, expressing alarm over the IRS's targeting of conservative groups that applied for tax-exempt status as 501(c)(4) social welfare organizations. Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., invoked the axiom, "The power to tax is the power to destroy."

But elsewhere on Capitol Hill, some lawmakers want to extend the IRS debate to look at the heavily financed activities of existing nonprofit groups in the 2012 elections.

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The real reason outside groups want tax-exempt status

May 14, 2013
Washington Post

Posted by Juliet Eilperin

Amid all the brouhaha over the Internal Revenue Service’s decision to single out conservative groups for special scrutiny as they sought tax-exempt status, one issue has gotten a little lost: Why these groups sought the status in the first place.

Herman Cain speaks at a Tea Party Patriots rally. Getty Images.

They weren’t petitioning to become recognized as “social welfare” groups because they were hoping to save on costs. They wanted to keep the identities of their contributors secret.
 

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IRS has been too lax on tax-exempt status

May 14, 2013
NPR

By Ruth Marcus

Sputtering adjectives — outrageous, appalling, intolerable — can scarcely do justice to the fiasco involving the Internal Revenue Service’s reported targeting of conservative groups.

But the current scandal obscures — and, ironically, threatens to prevent action on — another, equally corrosive failure on the part of the IRS when it comes to scrutinizing political groups.

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Obama denounces reported IRS targeting of conservative groups

May 13, 2013
Washington Post

By Juliet Eilperin and William Branigin

President Obama on Monday described the reported targeting of conservative groups by the Internal Revenue Service as “outrageous” and intolerable, and he called for those responsible to be held “fully accountable.”

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Obama, lawmakers denounce IRS for targeting conservative groups

May 13, 2013
Chicago Tribune

Obama called the IRS targeting of conservative groups "outrageous" in a press conference Monday.

By Christi Parsons and Lisa Mascaro

WASHINGTON – President Obama on Monday condemned the targeting of conservative groups by the Internal Revenue Service and vowed to punish anyone who may have taken part in it, as senators called for top IRS officials to resign and congressional committees prepared to investigate.

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Uneven I.R.S. Scrutiny Seen in Political Spending by Big Tax-Exempt Groups

May 13, 2013
New York Times

By NICHOLAS CONFESSORE

Over the last two years, government watchdog groups filed more than a dozen complaints with the Internal Revenue Service seeking inquiries into whether large nonprofit organizations like those founded by the Republican political operative Karl Rove and former Obama administration aides had violated their tax-exempt status by spending tens of millions of dollars on political advertising.

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For Tax-Exempt Groups, How Much Politics Is Too Much?

May 13, 2013
NPR

by Peter Overby

President Obama expressed outrage Monday over the Internal Revenue Service's admission that it targeted certain conservative groups for extra scrutiny. By the time the president weighed in, members of both parties in Congress had already begun preparing hearings to grill IRS officials on the issue.

The controversy is rooted in a question neither the IRS nor Congress has answered clearly: Exactly what kind of political activity is allowed for tax-exempt groups — particularly those with secret donors?

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