{"id":13918,"date":"2013-12-05T04:14:00","date_gmt":"2013-12-05T04:14:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/articles\/tempest-in-a-teapot\/"},"modified":"2013-12-05T04:14:00","modified_gmt":"2013-12-05T04:14:00","slug":"tempest-in-a-teapot","status":"publish","type":"article","link":"https:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/fr\/articles\/tempest-in-a-teapot\/","title":{"rendered":"Une temp\u00eate dans un verre d\u2019eau ?"},"template":"","class_list":["post-13918","article","type-article","status-publish","hentry","article_type-blog-post"],"acf":{"details":{"summary":"While Common Cause strongly supports an independent and thorough review of the IRS's actions, the hearings should also account for the agency's failure to enforce the law against political front groups masquerading as social welfare organizations.","featured_image":null,"article_type":1103,"authors":["{\"site_id\":\"1\",\"post_type\":\"person\",\"post_id\":8888}"],"related_issues":[149,2082],"related_work":false,"location":null},"sidebar":{"helper_enable_sidebar":false,"helper_media_contact":{"heading":"Media Contact","manually_enter_person":false,"person":null,"name":"","role":"","phone":"","email":""},"helper_links_downloads":{"heading":"Links & Downloads","links":null}},"page_layout":[{"acf_fc_layout":"layout_wysiwyg","_acfe_flexible_toggle":null,"component_wysiwyg":{"content":"

The Internal Revenue Service's apology for subjecting certain Tea Party groups to extra scrutiny<\/a><\/a> merits the widespread attention it is receiving if political bias motivated the audits. The President himself called the emerging scandal \"scandaleux<\/a>,\" and dirigeants<\/a> depuis les deux<\/a> political parties agree. So does Common Cause. More information will soon come to light, because the Treasury Department's Inspector General se pr\u00e9pare \u00e0 publier un rapport<\/a> sur sa propre enqu\u00eate de plusieurs mois, qui pourrait \u00eatre close d\u00e8s cette semaine.<\/p>

Pendant ce temps, les responsables de l'IRS se pr\u00e9parent \u00e0 occuper la sellette, comme ils le devraient. Le pr\u00e9sident Camp annonc\u00e9<\/a> Lundi soir, la commission des voies et moyens de la Chambre des repr\u00e9sentants commencera ses audiences sur la question d\u00e8s vendredi. Les s\u00e9nateurs McCain et Levin annonc\u00e9<\/a> in a joint statement that the Senate's Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations will postpone its tentatively scheduled June hearing into lax IRS enforcement of partisan nonprofit groups so that it can expand its investigation into the issues raised by the IRS's apology. Senator Baucus a l'intention de tenir des audiences au sein de la commission des finances<\/a>, aussi.<\/p>

Mais les actions apparentes des responsables de l'IRS visant \u00e0 donner la priorit\u00e9 \u00e0 certaines organisations (notamment conservatrices) pour les audits ne constituent qu'une partie du scandale. Bien que Common Cause soutienne fermement un examen ind\u00e9pendant et approfondi<\/a> of the IRS's actions, the hearings should also account for the agency's failure to enforce the law against political front groups masquerading as social welfare organizations. In other words, these hearings must not be used as a Trojan horse to undermine the IRS's responsibility to appliquer de mani\u00e8re impartiale<\/strong> la loi r\u00e9gissant les d\u00e9penses politiques \u00e0 but non lucratif. L'accent est mis sur impartialement, <\/strong>avec un accent \u00e9gal sur imposer<\/strong>.<\/p>

Fuite<\/a> portions of the forthcoming Inspector General's report support a finding that senior IRS officials were struggling with how best to vet the massive influx in 501(c)(4) \"social welfare\" organization applications just as the Tea Party rose to prominence, largement cr\u00e9dit\u00e9<\/a> en renversant le contr\u00f4le de la Chambre des repr\u00e9sentants en 2010 en intervenant dans les courses \u00e9lectorales.<\/p>

To qualify as a 501(c)(4), the organization's primary purpose must be the furtherance of \"social welfare\" and the common good -- something that the law expressly says fait pas<\/em> inclure l\u2019intervention dans les campagnes politiques<\/a>. But that hasn't stopped corporations and billionaires from forming these tax-exempt groups that flout the law, funneling secretly-sourced money into our elections for the sole purpose of providing donor anonymity. A 501(c)(4) is under no legal obligation to reveal its donors.<\/p>

Setting up a 501(c)(4) is actually quite simple. The law allows these nonprofits to \"self-declare,\" submit the IRS application, and immediately begin d\u00e9penses<\/a> sur les publicit\u00e9s politiques, avant m\u00eame que l'IRS n'informe le groupe du statut de sa demande, ce qui peut prendre des ann\u00e9es.<\/p>

Entre 2010 et 2012, les demandes de statut 501(c)(4) ont plus que doubl\u00e9<\/a> \u00e0 3400. Cela suit l'explosion des d\u00e9penses politiques 501(c)(4) \u00e0 la suite de Citoyens Unis,<\/em> d\u00e9cid\u00e9 en janvier 2010. Les organismes de protection sociale a inject\u00e9 plus de 14254 millions de dollars dans les \u00e9lections de 2012<\/a> according to the Center for Responsive Politics (CRP). That's only $1 million less than what political parties themselves spent. And that doesn't count 501(c)(4) spending on state and local races.<\/p>

Anyone living in a swing-state during the last presidential election will remember the near constant commercials. Social welfare organization ads were easy to confuse with those of Super PACs -- sometimes they have very similar names. Karl Rove's nonprofit, Crossroads GPS, dumped $70 millions<\/a> into independent expenditures -- commercials that called for the support or defeat of specific candidates. (Democracy21 and the Campaign Legal Center a d\u00e9pos\u00e9 une plainte<\/a> about Crossroads GPS with the IRS, citing this $70 million as \"\u00e0 premi\u00e8re vue <\/em>evidence\" that the group \"is a campaign operation, not a \"social welfare' group.\"). Americans for Prosperity, the Soutenu par Koch<\/a> machine politique qui se consid\u00e8re \u00e9galement comme une organisation \u00e0 but non lucratif de protection sociale, a d\u00e9pens\u00e9 plus de $33 millions<\/a> sur les d\u00e9penses ind\u00e9pendantes. Cause commune a envoy\u00e9 sa propre lettre<\/a> to the IRS last year about Liberty Central, a 501(c)(4) founded by Ginni Thomas, the Tea Party activist, lobbyist and wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. We requested an investigation into Liberty Central's primary purpose, one of the very first social welfare groups to spring up in the wake of Citoyens Unis<\/em>. Liberty Central was heavily involved in advocating for the defeat of Members of Congress that voted in favor of the Affordable Care Act. Ms. Thomas traveled the country, referring to state-based Tea Parties as \"satellite offices\" and advocating for the election of specific candidates in those states.<\/p>

If it seems like the overwhelming majority of social welfare nonprofit electioneering was on behalf of conservative viewpoints during the 2012 elections, you aren't mistaken. CRP rapports<\/a> que parmi tous les groupes ind\u00e9pendants qui ne divulguent pas leurs donateurs, plus de 851 TP3T des centaines de millions d\u00e9pens\u00e9s ont soutenu des points de vue conservateurs, avec seulement 11,21 TP3T d\u00e9pens\u00e9s pour ceux qui sont lib\u00e9raux.<\/p>

Of course, the fact that social welfare nonprofit spending was overwhelmingly conservative does not excuse the IRS from its obligation to apply neutral, impartial criteria when deciding which groups to audit. Neither does it justify an abrogation of the agency's duty to enforce the law in the first place.<\/p>

Si vous soutenez notre travail visant \u00e0 demander des comptes \u00e0 l'IRS, veuillez rejoindre ou renouveler votre adh\u00e9sion \u00e0 Common Cause d\u00e8s aujourd'hui.<\/p>"}}]},"yoast_head":"\nTempest in a Teapot? - Common Cause<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/fr\/articles\/tempest-in-a-teapot\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"fr_FR\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Tempest in a Teapot?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/fr\/articles\/tempest-in-a-teapot\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Common Cause\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/CommonCause\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/CC-Share-Graphic-Main9.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"630\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@CommonCause\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/articles\/tempest-in-a-teapot\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/articles\/tempest-in-a-teapot\/\",\"name\":\"Tempest in a Teapot? 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