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CREW Goes After Grover Norquist, Compares His ATR Works to Those of Al Capone

Posted on by Adrienne Gonzalez

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington — or CREW, as they are lovingly and lazily known for those of us who love acronyms and hate organizations with long complicated names — has filed a complaint with the IRS and DoJ in the hopes they will investigate Americans for Tax Reform and, more specifically, its head and current Colin love-hate man crush Grover Norquist.

CREW’s complaint alleges ATR and Mr. Norquist violated federal law by deliberately providing false information to the IRS when ATR filed its 2012 Tax Form 990. ATR misreported to the IRS the amount it spent producing and broadcasting advertisements opposing the election of Democratic candidates for Congress. In its reports to the Federal Election Commission (FEC), ATR reported spending $15,794,582 on political ads, but told the IRS it spent only $9,791,515 on its 2012 campaign activity, a disparity of $6,003,067.

ATR spent a total of almost $30.9 million in 2012, meaning more than half of the spending it reported to the FEC for the year was on politics, a clear violation of its tax-exempt status.

CREW Executive Director Melanie Sloan stated, “ATR’s own IRS and FEC filings provide incontrovertible evidence that ATR is breaking the law. If Al Capone could be nailed for tax violations, so can Grover Norquist.”

Wait a second, did she just compare Grover Norquist to Al Capone? Is she accusing him of tax evasion or is she calling him a syphilis-ridden mobster? Why not just take it all the way and call him the Bernie Madoff of conservative tax advocacy groups?

Sloan continued, “Mr. Norquist has been flagrantly violating the law for years, but the IRS continues to let him go on his merry way. What will it take for federal authorities to finally stop him?”

CREW has taken up this issue before so it's a legitimate question. When this came up last year, ATR communications director told The Hill "It's certainly not surprising that the [George] Soros-funded, left-wing CREW has issued another baseless complaint against a conservative organization."

We'll keep you posted on any developments.

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The Irony of Charlie Rangel Giving Tax Advice Is Not Lost on His Constituents

Charlie Rangel may have lost (temporarily!) his Chairmanship of the House Ways & Means committee because of a few tax issues but that doesn’t mean he isn’t willing to shell out a bit of tax advice during tax season.

Rangs sent a flier in the mail to his 15th District constituents so they could “put money back into your pockets.”

This particular bit of irony was not lost on the voters in the 15th District; the Daily News shared some of their thoughts including the obvious, “It’s probably not the best time to put something like that out,” to the practical, “I’d never take tax advice from that guy,” and those pointing out the chutzpah, “That is amazing. He certainly has gall.”


A spokesman is quoted that this SOP for Charlie during this time of year, “[He] has sent his tax newsletter to constituents for many years in order to assist them in filing their tax returns and ensuring that those who are eligible take advantage of important benefits, including the Earned Income Tax Credit.”

So maybe this is one of those time-honored Congressman Rangel traditions in the 15th District that operates like clockwork. Every tax season, voters can expect to get Chuck’s smiling face in their mailbox sharing tax advice on laws that he has helped write for decades. A little tax-related scandal isn’t going to put a stop to that. Unfortunately, we’re guessing the pamphlet doesn’t discuss how to exclude $75,000 in income from a rental property in the Dominican Republic. That would be taking things a bit too far.

Rep. Charlie Rangel’s constituents tell congressman to keep tax advice to himself [NYDN]

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What’s the Deal with These Bush Tax Cuts Expiring?

Good question, you say? If you mosey around the web for a nanosecond, you’re likely to run into an article that is debating whether or not the 43rd President’s tax cuts from 2001 and 2003 should be continued. Since Nancy Pelosi is determined to get a vote on this pre-election day, the political rhetoric on this issue is flowing like a river of sewage you dare not dream of.

To help you make sense of it all, we perused some of the tax wonkiest corners of the web to bring you some perspective. And of course, some less bright observations.


• The Tax Foundation has a breakdown of how the expiration of the tax cuts would affect “Average Middle-Income Family, by State and Congressional District.” It’s simple to find your state/district to see the effect that the expiration of the cuts would have on you.

• Over at the Journal, Washington Wire presents the biggest winners and losers from the tax cuts being extended:

Among the states that would save the most from extending the tax cuts, according to a draft of the study: Alaska ($1,959 per family); Connecticut ($1,903); Maryland ($1,756); Massachusetts ($1,831); New Jersey ($1,860) and Utah ($1,779). The lowest savings for middle-income families would be in D.C. ($1,237); West Virginia ($1,316); and Mississippi ($1,355).

• Apparently Alan Greenspan still has a shred of credibility left because he weighed in a couple of weeks ago, telling Bloomberg, “I should say they should follow the law and let them lapse.”

• The Beard doesn’t agree with his predecessor, telling the House Financial Services Committee, “In the short term I would believe that we ought to maintain a reasonable degree of fiscal support, stimulus for the economy. There are many ways to do that. This is one way.”

• William G. Gale, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and co-director of the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center, wrote in the Washington Post about five myths around the tax cuts, including their affect on small businesses:

One of the most common objections to letting the cuts expire for those in the highest tax brackets is that it would hurt small businesses. As Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) recently put it, allowing the cuts to lapse would amount to “a job-killing tax hike on small business during tough economic times.”

This claim is misleading. If, as proposed, the Bush tax cuts are allowed to expire for the highest earners, the vast majority of small businesses will be unaffected. Less than 2 percent of tax returns reporting small-business income are filed by taxpayers in the top two income brackets — individuals earning more than about $170,000 a year and families earning more than about $210,000 a year.

• Derek Thompson is a little more pragmatic than most, arguing that President Obama should extend them for a year in order to buy some time to work on comprehensive tax reform:

The president should extend the Bush tax cuts — yes, the whole dang thing — for a year to temporarily silence his critics. Then he should use 2011 to knock it down and build a tax system that’s right for the next decade. Working off a bipartisan plan, real tax reform would simplify the income brackets and eliminate the multitude of deductions and exemptions that distort the economy with bad incentives and leave hundreds of billions of dollars on the ground.

• Fred Thompson (no relation that we know of) is using his camera moxie to voice his support for the extension of the cuts:

• Ezra Klein agrees that some cuts will be extended temporarily, although the debate among citizens isn’t as clear:

The cuts for the rich are likely to be extended for at least two years. The cuts for the middle class are sure to be extended for even longer than that. Total cost to the deficit over the next 10 years? More than $3 trillion, and maybe more than $4 trillion.

But according to a Pew poll, the American public isn’t as sure about this as the politicians are. A slight plurality — 31 percent — want all the tax cuts repealed. Thirty percent want the cuts for the rich extended. In other words, opinion is divided.

• And even though she needed crib notes, Sarah Palin managed to tell Fox News’ Chris Wallace that letting the cuts expire ‘idiotic’:

“[Obama’s] commitment to let previous tax cuts expire are going to lead to even fewer job opportunities for Americans,” Palin said. “It’s idiotic to think about increasing taxes at a time like this.”

“My palm isn’t large enough to have written all my notes down on what this tax increase, what it will result in,” Palin continued.

Host Chris Wallace noticed that Palin did indeed have something written on her palm. “Can I ask you, what do you have written on your hand?” he asked.

“$3.8 trillion in the next 10 years,” Palin responded, “so I didn’t say $3.7 trillion and then get dinged by the liberals saying I didn’t know what I was talking about.”

But who would ever get the idea that Sarah Palin didn’t know what she was talking about?