For whatever reason, the people who make Camel cigarettes decided to disclose that they had made large contributions to Grover Norquist and the Koch brothers last year. I suppose that the disclosure is commendable, but I wonder what type of social welfare they thought they were promoting when they paid for right-wing attack ads. The whole 501(4)(c) thing is a scam that big corporations use to fund right-wing politics. The IRS should have pounded these groups into dust, and yet they gave every single one of them tax-exempt status. Sure, they slow-footed them a bit and asked some impertinent questions, but they ultimately gave them what they wanted, which was the right to raise unlimited amounts of money from corporations in a naked effort to get Mitt Romney elected president, and to do it without disclosure or taxation.
The IRS should not be partisan in any sense, but they also shouldn’t be stupid. These 501(4)(c) groups are not involved in social welfare. They are involved primarily in politics, usually for the furtherance of Republican aims.
