{"id":1911,"date":"2004-06-09T10:10:22","date_gmt":"2004-06-09T15:10:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/archives\/1911.html"},"modified":"2004-06-09T10:10:22","modified_gmt":"2004-06-09T15:10:22","slug":"gop-church-politicking-plan-has-another-problem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/gop-church-politicking-plan-has-another-problem\/","title":{"rendered":"GOP church politicking plan has another problem"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yesterday, I wondered aloud<\/a> about the unintended consequences of the “Safe Harbor for Churches” plan<\/a> being pushed by the House GOP.<\/p>\n

It seemed to me that Republicans might be opening a door wider than they realize. The GOP wants the Bush campaign to manipulate churches<\/a> as part of a new political machine. I get that. But once tax-exempt groups can start working on behalf of candidates, all kinds of left-leaning groups can get in on the fun, right?<\/p>\n

Well, it turns out I was mistaken, but my error raised a whole new concern.<\/p>\n

I thought the “Safe Harbor” provisions would apply to all tax-exempt groups, which would allow the Sierra Club, Planned Parenthood, the ACLU, et al, to do as much campaign work as the churches the GOP is targeting. But then I read the bill<\/a> itself and discovered that the new changes apply only to “churches” and “religious leaders.”<\/p>\n

Call me crazy, but I think this raises “equal protection” problems.<\/p>\n

Right now, federal tax law treats all tax-exempt non-profits equally. Whether a group is religious, educational, or charitable, they fall under the same part of the tax code and face the same restrictions. If a church pastor starts endorsing candidates and intervening in the political process, his or her ministry could lose its tax-exemption. But the same is true for a leader of a secular tax-exempt group. They all enjoy the same benefits and face the same penalties for the same transgressions.<\/p>\n

The GOP provisions would carve out a special protection for the ones they like best — churches. (Mind you, the bill literally says “churches,” not “houses of worship.” What about temples, synagogues, and mosques?)<\/p>\n

So, if the Republican plan became law, a religious tax-exempt group (i.e., a church) could get away with multiple violations of federal tax law while a secular tax-exempt group could not. It’s not a “Safe Harbor for Churches” plan; it’s a “special rights for churches” plan.<\/p>\n

I’m pretty sure that’s unconstitutional.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yesterday, I wondered aloud about the unintended consequences of the “Safe Harbor for Churches” plan being pushed by the House GOP. It seemed to me that Republicans might be opening a door wider than they realize. The GOP wants the Bush campaign to manipulate churches as part of a new political machine. I get that. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1911","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1911","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1911"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1911\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1911"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1911"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1911"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}