Richmond Tea Party’s former president and current U.S. Senate candidate, Jamie Radtke, issued a press release yesterday, calling on Rep. Darrell Issa to launch an investigation into whether or not the IRS is intentionally stalling the process of granting tax-exempt status to Tea Parties and other liberty groups across America. From her letter:
There is a pattern of IRS activity toward Tea Party and Patriot organizations that includes unwarranted delays and overly burdensome information requests that divert the energy and resources of those groups from their missions. This behavior has the effect of chilling the exercise of free speech and free association by the groups’ members and supporters. …
I hope you will seriously consider investigating this matter further. We must make it an absolute priority to protect free speech and the right to free association. They are the strongest bulwarks against tyranny. This needs immediate attention.
This comes on the heels of the IRS’s second request for Richmond Tea Party to provide an inordinate amount of documentation, including the totally inappropriate request for a full list of our donors and volunteers. Since we published the two IRS letters on our site, we have been contacted by other Tea Parties and liberty groups across America experiencing similar issues with the IRS (see, for example, the Ohio Liberty Council’s story). Could this be merely a coincidence? Or is the IRS targeting specific groups who share a core belief in limited government?
The American people deserve an answer, and Richmond Tea Party stands with Candidate Radtke in calling for this investigation. We also call on other Tea Parties and liberty groups to contact their own congressional representatives and join our push for the investigation. In what is the most critical election of our lifetime, liberty groups must have the freedom to serve our core principles for the betterment of society, holding our government accountable to We the People, rather than spend much of our time compiling frivolous documentation to satisfy the demands of an over-reaching bureaucracy.
