The Left used the IRS to shut down speech after the 2010 Tea Party election. Lois Lerner became a household name. No one involved suffered for that abuse of power. Is that why House Democrats think they can tweak the tax code to silence speech to which they object?
Related: Senate Dems announce Plan to Amend the First Amendment ‘cuz Too Much Free Speech
If Democrats disagree with your message, well, no tax breaks for you.
On Thursday, the Oversight Subcommittee of the House Ways and Means Committee held a hearing on “How the Tax Code Subsidizes Hate,” in which Democrats sought to link accredited 501(c)(3) nonprofits to “hate” speech and violence. Democrats at the hearing expressed concern that the federal government is in effect subsidizing groups with which it is at odds.
The problem is that it’s unconstitutional. Tax exemptions cannot be denied based on viewpoint discrimination.
The Supreme Court has repeatedly made clear that tax exemptions can’t be denied based on the viewpoint that a group communicates. This was first made clear in Justice Brennan’s opinion in Speiser v. Randall (1958), which struck down a denial of a property tax exemption to people and organizations that “advocate the overthrow of the Government of the United States . . . by . . . violence . . . or who advocate the support of a foreign government against the United States in the event of hostilities.”
Like the Democrat party!
It is an organization that uses hate and violence to not just silence speech but to overthrow our free-market constitutional Republic.
It’s an ongoing project for leftist ideological supremacists. How do we use our free speech and the force of law to stop people from hearing words or seeing things we don’t want them to see or hear?
We call them racists, white supremacists, bigots, and haters, and they won’t stop talking. Let’s change the tax code!
Why Bother?
This latest swing and inevitable miss seem more like theatre for media shills. Many of these House Democrats have been around a while. They have to know this won’t fly. But they hold the hearing to get the press to plant another seed. Not all speech should be free. You should let the State decide what words and ideas are acceptable. Don’t worry, we won’t come after your speech (whispering, as long as it mimics our own).
That’s scary and stupid. Much the same way the Democrats seek to accumulate power for the government always assuming they’ll be the ones wielding it.
How’d that work out in 2016?
We’ve got a ‘crazy man’ lowering taxes, cutting regulations, ignoring the Left’s domestic media terrorism, and fighting to protect regular Americans from things like the State using the IRS to discriminate based on viewpoint.
Pelosi and Company are not stupid but sometimes they are not very bright.