"Outrage" over IRS targeting of right-wing PACS turning law-breakers into "victims"

The current “outrage” over the IRS targeting Tea Party and other anti-government PACs which claim tax-exempt status is typical obfuscation of reality. Instead of portraying these groups as “victims” of government “oppression,” we should be examining if these IRS investigations are justified. It certainly stands to reason that the purpose of these groups is in part an anti-tax and “small” government agenda, and falsely claiming tax-exempt status is just part of the “game.” Back in October I talked about how countless shadowy right-wing PACS and secret “non-profit” organizations seemed to pop-up overnight to take advantage of the IRS tax code known as the 501(c)(4). These groups usually are nothing more than a P.O. box and a one-person “board of directors.” They are not required to report their existence, or how much money was donated to them, and what the money was used for. 

Furthermore, these “non-profit” groups deliberately deceive the public about their purpose. They can claim tax-exempt “social welfare” status concerned about a legitimate issue—like an environmental group would—but they often don’t explain their purpose other than to defeat a candidate. They emerge months before an election, give themselves showy names, funnel millions into attack ads and then disappear virtually as fast as they appeared. The Washington Post reported that ¾ of the campaign ads in support of Mitt Romney’s presidential bid (or anti-Obama) were largely funded by such shadowy “tax-exempt” organizations; in comparison, only one-fifth of Barack Obama’s campaign ads were funded by “outside” groups. Even today there are many of these groups—some backed by unnamed billionaires—claiming tax-exempt status with no rational reason for being other than to at some point reopen the floodgates of cash that no one knows from whom, how much or to what purpose.

Where were the Congressional investigations into the blatant efforts to skirt campaign and tax laws by these mostly right-wing groups? Why is the media twisting this story to allow them to claim “victimization,” when they may very well be more likely to be breaking tax laws, particularly since they have a known anti-tax agenda?  Why is Obama playing along with the hypocritical politics of this? The “scandal” isn’t that these groups have been targeted; it is that many of them have twisted if not outright broken the law, and Congress will do nothing to stop them. The promised hearings on the IRS investigations into their activities can only benefit those who wish to break the law and flood even more money into an already grotesquely altered political campaign landscape, thanks to the U.S. Supreme Court’s abominable Citizens United decision.