"The Other IRS Scandal": David Cay Johnston on Dark Money Political Groups Seeking Tax Exemption

David Cay Johnston requires little introduction yet for those unfamiliar, his Wikipedia bio is HERE.

Among his great books ----

Although Temples of Chance is out of print, copies are available on Alibris.
David Cay Johnston explains how junk bonds kinds and corruption invaded New Jersey in a tale that mirror Massachusetts.



In the 1980s, corporate America and junk bond kings usurped Mafia control of the casino industry. Now, with the spread of legalized gambling, a former vice is fast becoming a national pastime. Readers go gambling with five of the highest rollers in the world, find out about the dishonest underside of the industry, and how regulators are failing to stop corruption.


Below is David Cay Johnston's appearance on Democracy Now, worth watching in its entirety --




The acting commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service, Steven Miller, has been forced to resign days after the IRS apologized to tea party and other right-wing groups for putting extra scrutiny on their bids to become tax-exempt organizations. While the IRS targeting of tea party groups has made headlines for days, far less attention has been paid to the roots of the crisis. After the 2010 landmark Supreme Court decision Citizens United, there was a spike in new political organizations seeking tax-exempt status under tax code Section 501(c)(4). The court ruled these groups could raise unlimited corporate money without disclosing donor information. Several groups have claimed to be social welfare organizations while spending tens of millions of dollars on political operations. We speak to David Cay Johnston, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who writes about taxes issues. "One of the questions that needs to be examined in the real scandal here is: How did MoveOn, how did Karl Rove’s Crossroads GPS, how did Bill Burton’s progressive Democratic group get approved as exclusively social welfare organizations?" Johnston says. "There are a bunch of folks out there arguing that, well, 'primarily,' that phrase that pops up in IRS regulations, can mean 49.9 percent of your activity. I’m sorry, is there an adult in America who’s been in a romantic relationship who thinks that 'exclusively' is 49 percent of the time?"


http://www.democracynow.org/2013/5/16/the_other_irs_scandal_david_cay