Before a House Ways and Means Committee hearing on the IRS’s targeting of conservative groups, Democratic congressman Jim McDermott argued that conservatives deserved the scrutiny they received. “None of your organizations were kept from organizing or silenced. We are talking about whether or not be American taxpayers will subsidize your work. We are talking about a tax break,” McDermott said. “If you did not come in and ask for this tax break, you would never have had a question asked of you. you could go out there and say anything you wanted in the world.”
“Each of your groups is highly political. From opposing the president’s health care reform to abortion restrictions to gay marriage, you are all entrenched in some of the most controversial political issues in the country. And with your applications you were asking the American public to pay for that work. Many of you host and endorse candidates–the line between permitted and non-permitted political activity that can be very fine. It’s important that the taxpayers, the taxpayers know which side you fall on. If there were an organization promoting taxpayer funding for abortions, would do not want to know what they were using that political money for? Or for what candidates they were backing? What about a group that wanted to promote voting without ID? Or what if — a few years ago there was an increase in communist candidates in this country and they wanted to be tax-exempt? Wouldn’t you want to be sure that the self declared tax-free classification of those groups was correct?”
Organizing for Action… Planned Parenthood 501c4
