“They’re trying to bury us in time, trying to bury us in paperwork, and they are making us use up resources we don’t have, especially small local organizations and small groups,” Eric Wilson, director of the Kentucky 9/12 Project said, referring to an IRS questionnaire with 88 inquiries. “And they’re doing this during a critical election year. This is not by accident. This is coordinated and this is targeted.”
Saying President Barack Obama is “targeting the Tea Party” and using the “IRS as a weapon,” Tea Party activists Wednesday launched a coalition to combat the federal government agency’s burdensome and onerous interrogation of conservative groups to determine if they should receive tax exempt status.
Speaking at the National Press Club, two Tea Party group leaders announced the formation of the Liberty Defense Foundation, which will assist grassroots organizations in fending off long questionnaires from the IRS when filing for 501 (c) (4) non-profit status.
“I really wish I didn’t have to be here,” said Eric Wilson, director of the Kentucky 9/12 Project. “I don’t mind coming to D.C. to visit but I don’t want to be doing a press conference for the reasons I’m having to do it, because the truth is, Obama’s IRS is targeting local Tea Party, liberty groups and ordinary citizens. And that’s the reason we have to fight back.”
Wilson said his organization and hundreds of others have received letters from the IRS requesting thousands of pages of information about their activities, with a two-week deadline to respond.
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