In the News
Charisma News: 2015 America Meets Sam Adams’ Criteria to Disobey Government
Bethany Blankley
In response to the IRS’ abuse of power, an outraged public submitted a record-setting number of comments expressing their opposition to IRS rules. A Center for Competitive Politics study found that 94 percent of public comments opposed some aspects of proposed IRS rules; 87 percent opposed them outright; and of all participants opponents outnumbered supporters by a 2:1 margin. Yet, their opposition has not prevented unelected bureaucrats from enforcing laws Congress did not create.
IRS
Wall Street Journal: The Taxman’s Politics
Editorial Board
The Obama Administration has made a two-year career of dismissing concern about IRS policies targeting conservative tax-exempt groups. That evasion just got harder. New information shows the agency may have shown similar bias in tax audits.
A new Government Accountability Office report says protocols in place at the IRS Exempt Organizations unit made it possible for groups to be unfairly targeted for audit “based on the organization’s religious, educational, political, or other views.” That’s our emphasis. The report also shows a process that allowed reviewers to wield significant discretion over whether certain groups were selected for scrutiny.
New York Times: The I.R.S. Gives Up on ‘Dark Money’
Editorial Board
The federal government has all but surrendered to the powerful, rich donors whose anonymous contributions threaten to undermine the 2016 elections. The commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service, John Koskinen, signaled as much on Thursday when he told a House committee that there would be no change in the tax code in 2016 to end its growing abuse by political operatives using nonprofit “social welfare” institutions to disguise the identities of affluent campaign contributors.
“I don’t want people thinking we are trying to get these regs done so we can influence the election,” Mr. Koskinen declared later to reporters. The statement was remarkable for blessing further procrastination at the I.R.S., whose clear obligation is to enforce existing law in a way that would end the current flood of “dark money” financing politics. The commissioner said the earliest that tighter rules could take effect would be 2017.
Forbes: Watchdog Finds Deficient IRS Controls Leave Room For Targeting
Robert W. Wood
The GAO said the IRS does not consistently monitor examinations and database files to ensure that selection decisions are documented and approved. GAO’s review of examination files found that approval of some selection decisions was not documented, as required by IRS procedures.
The GAO report examined cases where IRS staff initially selected an organization for examination, but ultimately decided not to perform the examination. In 12% to 34% of those cases were missing the indication of management approval of the final decision not to examine, as required in the Internal Revenue Manual. In general, the GAO report also said the IRS management for this part of the IRS has not been sufficiently monitoring its staff and procedures to make sure the required approvals were obtained.
Washington Examiner: House chairman: Documents prove IRS ‘political targeting’ of conservatives
Paul Bedard
The chairman of the top House committee probing the IRS political witch hunt of President Obama’s foes said documents prove that the agency targeted conservatives and then tried to destroy the evidence and he promised “news” on the panel’s investigation next week.
“I promise you – there will be news on the IRS side as early as next week. So stay tuned,” said Rep. Jason Chaffetz, chair of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.
FEC
Forbes: FEC Won’t Investigate Employer-Mandated Campaign Rally
Holly Rosenkrantz
FEC deadlocked on whether to investigate charges that Ohio mining company Murray Energy violated campaign finance rules by requiring employees and their families attend a 2012 rally for Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney, Bloomberg BNA’s Kenneth Doyle reports, citing FEC documents.
National Journal: Seven Things You Learn About 2016 Campaigns From Staring at FEC Data Too Long
S.V. Date
If you worked for a presidential campaign this spring, you more than likely worked for Hillary Clinton—her payroll had 349 different names, more than those of all the other campaigns put together.
Her closest rival was former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, whose campaign had 66 people described as receiving either “salary” or “payroll” on the second-quarter Federal Election Commission reports, which were filed last week. Next was Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, who had 61, followed by former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley, who had 58.
At the bottom of the list are Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, who reported just one salaried employee, and former Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania, former New York Gov. George Pataki, and former Rhode Island Gov. Lincoln Chafee, who each reported zero employees.
Candidates and Campaigns
Burlington Free Press: Reddit boosts Sanders’ momentum
Anna Palmer and John Bresnahan
The pro-Sanders subreddit is autonomous but is in contact with Sanders’ campaign. For instance, the campaign set up a portal for contributions at King’s request when the community wanted to raise $15 contributions on July 15 to symbolize the increased minimum wage Sanders is seeking. Their “moneybomb” event raised $62,000 for Sanders on the portal and likely raised more through other platforms…
King said Sanders’ biggest challenge is lack of exposure. The subreddit is promoting Sanders’ volunteer organizing meetings on July 29. They’re also hosting a “chalk the block” event on August 8, encouraging people — where it’s legal — to write eight messages on sidewalks about Sanders’ positions, such as pay equity for women, paid maternity leave or free college tuition.
Politico: Harry Reid rakes in $1M from trial lawyers by invoking Koch Bros.
Anna Palmer and John Bresnahan
“All that super PAC money that comes in from all those people — the Koch brothers and others — the TV stations see that coming, and they can charge them whatever they want,” Reid said, according to a transcript of his remarks obtained by POLITICO. “So the money that you give here — over a million dollars — will be multiplied so many times compared to that super PAC money. So thank you all very very much.”
Reid’s appeal to deep-pocketed trial lawyers shows how party leaders play the fundraising game these days: Counter the other side’s rich donors with your own and hit them up for money as often as possible and in whatever form they can give — direct contributions to candidates, or large donations to party affiliated super PACs. In this case, Reid was soliciting “hard” money that can be spent directly on races.
Wall Street Journal: For Donald Trump, Being His Own Super PAC Has Its Advantages
Rebecca Ballhaus
But should Mr. Trump, who is currently topping the field in polling of GOP primary voters, continue to pour millions into his campaign, he will be uniquely equipped to purchase campaign advertisements at lower cost, since candidates pay a reduced rate compared with outside groups, such as super PACs.
TV stations are required to give candidates the “lowest unit rate” in the 45 days before a primary election, and before that must still charge a reasonable rate. While other candidates are also entitled to the lowest rate, the majority of the funds backing their campaigns will likely land in the outside groups backing them.
Campaign Finance
The Hill: Corporate dark money is keeping millions of Americans in poverty
Deepak Bhargava
The reason the needs of working Americans has been ignored is straightforward — follow the money. Special interest groups and political arms of giant corporations have been actively combating our efforts to turn the minimum wage into a living wage..
That is the current state of democracy in America. The reality of this situation is that there are corporations and CEOs who have taken advantage and essentially removed the rest of us from having a voice in the process.
Political contributions are the new form of a pay-to-play political system that discriminates against those who need their government’s attention the most. Barriers to success are hurting working Americans, regardless of their race, religion, gender or political party. It doesn’t matter whether your family immigrated yesterday or came over on the Mayflower..
The States
New York Post: New York’s Kafka-esque campaign-finance laws
Editorial Board
As The Post’s Carl Campanile reported, Albanese joined the city’s matching-fund system when he ran for mayor in 2013. That guaranteed him $6 in public money for every $1 he raised in small contributions.
Problem was, he couldn’t raise enough cash to qualify for matching funds. So he loaned his campaign $170,000 to stay afloat.
Alas, he got less than 1 percent of the vote and couldn’t round up enough donations to pay himself back. So he just wrote off the loan.
Oops: Under the campaign-finance law, a written-off loan counts as a contribution. And there’s a strict $14,850 limit on how much candidates can donate to themselves.
Sacramento Bee: Jerry Brown signs bill to pay Chuck Reed $106,173.50
Jon Ortiz
The payout stems from a 2013 ruling by the California Fair Political Practices Commission that Reed’s pension reform committee illegally gave $100,000 to another group. But after concluding Reed had not intended to break the law, the commission fined him just $1 dollar.
Reed could have paid the buck and moved on, but instead he took the commission to court. A judge ruled that the law cited to fine Reed infringed on his freedom of speech rights. Victory in hand, Reed then negotiated a settlement with the commission, which agreed to pay his legal fees.
