Last week, the IRS apologized for targeting conservative groups in audits for tax exempt status. In response, Senator Claire McCaskill, a Democrat from Missouri, is calling for high-ranking officials to be fired.
501(c)(4)s are tax exempt organizations that are supposed to be “social welfare” groups. But in reality, many are Political Action Committees that do not have to disclose donors. A couple of prominent examples are Americans For Prosperity and Crossroads GPS on the conservative end, and Priorities USA on the liberal side.
McCaskill called the IRS singling out conservative 501(c)(4)s “an offense to what we are as a country.”
“Someone should be fired, and it should not just be some line employee," McCaskill said. "Anyone that was in a position of responsibility who knew that this very un-American activity was going on should be fired.”
In a press conference Monday, President Obama said he learned about the scandal from press reports, and called the targeting "outrageous if true."
Senator Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) agreed.
"It is absolutely unacceptable to single out any political group -- right, left or center and say that we're going to target them," Durbin said. "This goes back to the worst days of the Richard Nixon administration, and I'm glad this administration stepped up and said 'We made a mistake, we apologize, and we're going to do things to correct it.'"
Campaign watchdogs worry this announcement will spur even less oversight of liberal and conservative so-called “Dark Money” groups.
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