IRS Nonprofit Scrutiny Included Look for ACORN Successors

[xchrom]

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-08-20/irs-nonprofit-scrutiny-included-look-for-acorn-successors.html

The Internal Revenue Service told its employees to watch out for applications for tax-exempt status by successors to Acorn, the now-defunct Democratic-leaning community organizing group.

Congressional Democrats, who released the recently unredacted information today, maintained that such scrutiny undermines the idea that the U.S. tax agency’s policing of political groups was limited to Tea Party organizations.

Acorn, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, disbanded in 2010 after hidden videos showed workers offering advice on opening a prostitution business.

“This new information should put a nail in the coffin of the Republican claims that the IRS’s actions were politically motivated or were targeted at only one side of the political spectrum,” Representative Elijah Cummings, a Maryland Democrat, said in a statement. “It is time for House Republicans to stop trying to score political points and start to focus on reforming the IRS.”

[DetlefK]

1. Would make some great attack-ads:

"So where did this false rumor that the IRS were biased against Tea Party-groups come from?
Who spread this rumor? Who whipped up this empty frenzy?
Think about it: What kind of politician would spread baseless rumors to score political points and fundraise of it?"

[marmar]

2. k/r