NRSC - Shaheen Must Return $5,000 in Campaign Contributions from IRS Union

Senate Democrats received more than $570,000 from IRS Union

Washington, D.C. – This week news broke that Senate Democrats were guilty of pressuring the IRS to target many of the conservative groups that the embattled agency now stands accused of doing.  But, a closer look reveals further evidence of Jeanne Shaheen's feigning outrage: Shaheen was reaping the benefits from Democrats' close relationship with the IRS, receiving $5,000 from the IRS Employees Union.

"While Democrats were pushing the IRS to target conservatives and other political enemies, their campaigns benefited from more than half a million dollars in campaign contributions from the IRS union," said NRSC Communications Director Brad Dayspring. "After years of pressuring the IRS to crackdown on their political opponents, Jeanne Shaheen and her Democratic colleagues must be honest with taxpayers and return the IRS union's contributions immediately."

Background:

Since 1998, Sitting Senate Democrats Have Received $571,000 From The IRS Employees Union – The National Treasury Employees Union. (Center For Responsive Politics, www.opensecrets.org, Accessed 5/17/13)

Jeanne Shaheen Received $5,000 From The IRS Employees Union – The National Treasury Employees Union. (Center For Responsive Politics, www.opensecrets.org, Accessed 5/17/13)

The National Treasury Employees Union Represents IRS Employees. “NTEU-represented agencies: Internal Revenue Service.” (National Treasury Employees Union, http://www.nteu.org/NTEU/#strong, Accessed On 5/17/13)

“With growing scrutiny of the role of tax-exempt groups in political campaigns, Congressional Republicans are pushing back against Democrats by warning about the possible misuse of the Internal Revenue Service to audit conservative groups….And the Republicans are also upset about an I.R.S. review requested by Senator Max Baucus, the Montana Democrat who leads the Finance Committee, into the political activities of tax-exempt groups. Such a review threatens to "chill the legitimate exercise of First Amendment rights," wrote two Republican senators, Orrin G. Hatch of Utah and Jon Kyl of Arizona, in a letter sent to the I.R.S. ... Democrats dismissed the Republicans' complaints as groundless.” (New York Times, Republicans See a Political Motive in I.R.S. Audits, 10/6/10 )

“The Internal Revenue Service is caught in an election-year struggle between Democratic lawmakers pressing for a crackdown on nonprofit political groups and conservative organizations accusing the tax agency of conducting a politically charged witch hunt.” (New York Times, Scrutiny of Political Nonprofits Sets Off Claim of Harassment , 3/6/2012)

CEI Today: Senate vote on EPA nominee, suing the EPA, and labor unions vs workers

EPA NOMINEE - BRIAN McNICOLL

Fox News: EPA tries hard to keep nominee Gina McCarthy 'clean' before confirmation hearings

The Environment and Public Works Committee will vote this week on Gina McCarthy's nomination. Senators should not act on her nomination until she orders the veil lifted and lets Americans know her record with regard to President Obama's war on coal and efforts by the administration to build outside support for a carbon tax. > Read more

> Interview Brian McNicoll

SUING EPA - MARLO LEWIS Forbes: A Supreme Court EPA Decision That Could Cost Taxpayers $21 Billion Per Year Is the Clean Air Act so badly flawed that it will cripple environmental enforcement and economic development alike unless the EPA and its state counterparts defy clear statutory provisions or, alternatively, spend $21 billion a year to employ an additional 320,000 bureaucrats? That is a central issue in a recent lawsuit by the Southeastern Legal Foundation, the Competitive Enterprise Institute and a host of lawmakers and several companies. > Read more > Interview Marlo Lewis

LABOR UNIONS - MATT PATTERSON Washington Examiner: 'Life of Julius' shows how unions kill jobs, hurt workers Many people realize that unions can hurt the workers they claim to represent. For example, the United Auto Workers union drove labor costs up for the Big Three automakers, a major factor in driving General Motors into bankruptcy and leaving Detroit a shadow of its former glory. But what many don't realize is that labor unions can kill jobs and hurt workers even if they are not members of a union, because the laws, regulations and politicians supported by unions affect our entire economy, often in negative ways. > Read more See Julius’s story at WorkplaceChoice.org

More in the news... Government Gives Students Lifelong Lesson— In Debt Ohio Deserves Right-To-Work Institutional Corruption: AFSCME Subverts Prison Accountability Europe’s “Green Energy” Initiatives Don’t Want Your Help Youth Unemployment Is at Highest Sustained Level Since World War II First Amendment Menace: Obama Administration to Expand Americans with Disabilities Act over Websites?

CEI ANNUAL DINNER & GALA FEATURING THE HONORABLE RAND PAUL JUNE 20, 2013 cei.org/ceidinner

CEI is a non-profit, non-partisan public policy group dedicated to the principles of free enterprise and limited government.  For more information about CEI, please visit our website, cei.org, and blogs, Globalwarming.org and OpenMarket.org.  Follow CEI on Twitter! Twitter.com/ceidotorg.

CEI Weekly: The Life of Julius

May 3, 2013

Feature: CEI releases a new video on labor policy.

FEATURE: The Life of Julius The Obama campaign's controversial "Life of Julia" told a story about a woman's lifelong beneficial relationship with government. This week, CEI produced a video counterpoint: "The Life of Julius," a short animated film about a man's lifelong frustrations wrought by pro-union labor policies. Watch the video here. SHAPING THE DEBATE Getting the History of the Voting Rights Act right Hans Bader's letter to the editor in The Washington Post The Life of Julius Iain Murray' op-ed in National Review Republicans Dishonor Thatcher Matthew Melchiorre & Ryan Young's op-ed in The American   Obamacare Gets New Court Challenge CEI's citation in The Wall Street Journal The Sad Decline of the Word 'Capitalism' Fred Smith's citation in Forbes Lawsuit Accuses IRS of Illegal Actions in Rollout of Obamacare Sam Kazman's citation in The Hill Another Lawsuit Filed for EPA Official's Private Emails Chris Horner's citation in The Washington Examiner

CEI PODCAST May 2, 2013: Small Business Owners Sue Over IRS Power Grab Small business owners and individuals in six states, with help from CEI, are suing the IRSover what General Counsel Sam Kazman calls aflagrantly illegal expansion of the Affordable Care Act. BEST OF THE BLOGS The Costs of Union Shareholder Activism By Ivan Osorio Housing Nominee Watt Flunks Privacy and Transparency Tests By John Berlau Transatlantic Speakers Express Strong Support of U.S.-EU Trade Pact By Fran Smith U.S. Bans French Cheese Based on Food Prejudices By Hans Bader

CEI Today: Life of Julius video, national ID, and EU "cultural diversity"

Meet Julius: How Unions Hurt The Average Worker

Julius is an African American man living in modern-day America. Julius is a fictitious character, but the problems he faces are real problems that real people face every day. He wants the American Dream. He wants prosperity and opportunity. He wants his kids to have a better life than he did. When he retires, he wants to know that his years of hard work have meant some level of comfort in his old age.

In other words, Julius wants what all of us want. Unfortunately, his economic hopes are continually frustrated in ways both large and small, both obvious and subtle, by a powerful force: labor unions.

Please come see Julius’s story at WorkplaceChoice.org, and share with your friends and family. After all — you are Julius. And so are we all. > View the video

IMMIGRATION  - DAVID BIER Openmarket.org: Gang Of 8’s Euphemism For National ID System: “Identity Authentication Mechanism” Our new euphemism for a national identification system is “identity authentication mechanism.” The Gang of 8, the leaders of which are biometric national ID card proponents, included a provision in the electronic employment verification portion of the immigration bill that calls for such a “mechanism” to identify every American at the click of a mouse. The exact thing that Americans have resisted for the past 80 years, ever since the Social Security card was first proposed.  > Read the full commentary > Interview David Bier

US-EU TRADE TALKS - FRAN SMITH Openmarket.org: Will EU “Cultural Diversity” Exception Undermine U.S.-EU Trade Talks? A possible bump in the road  toward  a U.S.-EU trade agreement emerged  today as a parliamentary committee of the European Commission voted to begin trade talks with the U.S. but to allow a “cultural exception” for film and audio-visual subsidies. That means that the EU would be carving out this exception early on, possibly creating an obstacle to real progress on eliminating non-tariff trade barriers between the two parties.   > Read more > Interview Fran Smith

More in the news... Obama’s Controversial Nominee for Labor Secretary To Be Voted On Maryland Bill Will Force Teachers To Pay For The Privilege Of Going To Work New York Times: Obama Administration Discrimination Settlement Was “Magnet For Fraud” That Enriched Trial Lawyers

CEI ANNUAL DINNER & GALA FEATURING THE HONORABLE RAND PAUL JUNE 20, 2013 cei.org/ceidinner

CEI is a non-profit, non-partisan public policy group dedicated to the principles of free enterprise and limited government.  For more information about CEI, please visit our website, cei.org, and blogs, Globalwarming.org and OpenMarket.org.  Follow CEI on Twitter! Twitter.com/ceidotorg.

CEI Today: Obama recess appointments, cheese ban protests, and how unions harm workers

OBAMA RECESS APPOINTMENTS  - JOHN BERLAU

Openmarket.org: Did Hensarling Force Obama’s Hand On “Recess” Appointments?

They called it a “stunt” early last week when House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas) refused to allow Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) director Richard Cordray to testify due to the constitutional cloud over Cordray’s appointment. But this “stunt” just may have forced the Obama administration’s hand in submitting a brief later in the week urging the Supreme Court to resolve the issue.  > Read the full commentary

> Interview John Berlau

CHEESE BAN - HANS BADER Openmarket.org: U.S. Government Bans French Cheese Based On Food Prejudices The U.S. government is banning a standard, normal-smelling French cheese based on its own squeamishness. The cheese in question is Mimolette, a commonplace, orange French cheese. The ban has triggered protests in New York City. Who cares if it has tiny, invisible mites in it? The cheese mites in Mimolette are there to enhance its flavor: as Wikipedia notes, the “crust of aged Mimolette is the result of cheese mites intentionally introduced to add flavor by their action on the surface of the cheese.” > Read more > Interview Hans Bader

LABOR UNIONS - IAIN MURRAY National Review: The Life of Julius Remember the White House’s poster child for welfare dependency, Julia? Meet Julius. Julius is the star of a new original production from my team at the Competitive Enterprise Institute and narrated by AlfonZo Rachel, “The Life of Julius: How Unions Hurt Workers.” Julius is a fictional character, but his aspirations, hopes, and values are shared by every American. He wants opportunity and economic security. He wants his years of hard work to mean some level of comfort in his retirement. Unfortunately, labor-union bosses, and the politicians and laws they support, continually frustrate Julius’s prosperity in ways both large and small, both obvious and subtle. > Read more You can see Julius’s story, and learn more about unions’ effects on the economy at WorkPlaceChoice.

More in the news... Jerry Brown’s Legacy Train Wreck Gang Of 8’s Euphemism For National ID System: “Identity Authentication Mechanism”

CEI ANNUAL DINNER & GALA FEATURING THE HONORABLE RAND PAUL JUNE 20, 2013 cei.org/ceidinner

CEI is a non-profit, non-partisan public policy group dedicated to the principles of free enterprise and limited government.  For more information about CEI, please visit our website, cei.org, and blogs, Globalwarming.org and OpenMarket.org.  Follow CEI on Twitter! Twitter.com/ceidotorg.