Job creation within conservative circles continues to thrive
despite some major setbacks, like the failed and almost laughable Koch brothers
brainchild United Sportsmen of Wisconsin.
jsonline-Jason Stein: A controversial sportsmen's group is asking the federal government for a hardship exemption from penalties for having botched its tax filings.
The United Sportsmen of Wisconsin, which won and then lost a $500,000 state grant, had to repeatedly clarify its tax status last fall after … it had misrepresented that status and failed to make the required federal filings … some four months after they were first requested … the group paid $118,400 in 2011 to an out-of-state Republican consultant, had only one donor in 2011 and ran a $29,000 deficit in 2012 just before seeking the taxpayer-funded grant for teaching state residents to hunt and fish.
This is what passes for conservative “job
creation.” Right wing groups employ low information true believers to do their bidding. With a little luck, groups promoting these teetering or completely failed ideas can get a new lease on life if given
the right taxpayer supported legislative gift.
The news media intentionally protects
those responsible, like in the sentence
below, that replaces the Koch brothers influence with the generic reference “GOP
insiders.”
United Sportsmen, a three-year-old group with close ties to GOP insiders...
No Consequences for Bad Behavior, Law Breaking:
In a letter last month to the federal Internal Revenue Service provided by Annette Olson, the secretary-treasurer for United Sportsmen, the group argued it shouldn't face penalties despite its mistakes and misrepresentations. "It would be against equity and good conscience to impose such a penalty on this small tax-exempt organization. This late filing was not an act of deliberate late filing but was an administrative oversight which will not happen again," the letter read.
These finely tuned “small” (don’t laugh) right wing machines,
when caught, always feign a childlike innocence over their run of bad luck. And yet it's anything but:
At that time, United Sportsmen made a number of contradictory claims about its tax status. Initially, the group presented itself as a nonprofit and then, when it was revealed it hadn't yet received federal nonprofit status, said it was a for-profit company. When the Journal Sentinel reported the group hadn't filed any state tax filing required for for-profit firms, United Sportsmen reversed itself again and said it was a nonprofit...
This innocent small "sportsmen's" group has quite an "inadvertent" political track record:
The political group Citizens for a Strong America Inc. gave $235,000 to United Sportsmen in 2011 ... $118,400, went to Arena Communications of Salt Lake City, Utah, that helps design and send out mailings to voters ... has high-profile GOP clients … including Walker; Rep. Paul Ryan; the state GOP; and the committee representing Republican state senators. United Sportsmen sent out a mailing in the 2011 state Senate recall elections.
Besides the 2011 mailing, the two affiliates of United Sportsmen sponsored the Sportsmen Freedom Fest and Concert in Lake Delton with Americans for Prosperity and the National Rifle Association … just before the presidential election. The group also has spent $60,387 lobbying lawmakers in favor of sporting legislation, such as the creation of a wolf hunt, as well as bills to ease the way for a controversial open pit iron mine in northern Wisconsin and to better enable development in wetlands.You’ll love this hilarious response…
Walker also has a bridge he wants to sell you:
Republican lawmakers and Walker's office have said they didn't seek to benefit a political ally.
An attempt at a half million dollar fraud with a quarter million a year thereafter and they are worried about tax penalties. Without the Van Hollen issued GOP get out of jail free card they would have other things to think about. Ilegal but not criminal.
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