Up until now no presidential campaign in history has turned itself into a non-profit organization in order to fund it’s legislative agenda. Enter Obama for America, which Michelle Obama declared on Friday will soon be turned into a 501(c) 4 social welfare non-profit organization that will be renamed Organizing For Action. She said this will be “the next phase of our movement for change.”
The Obama campaign sent out an email to supporters that read, “We may have started this as a long shot presidential primary campaign in 2007, but it’s always been about more than just winning an election. Together, we’ve made our communities stronger, we’ve fought for historic legislation, and we’ve brought more people than ever before into the political process. Organizing for Action will be a permanent commitment to this mission.”
“We’ve got to keep working on growing the economy from the middle out, along with making meaningful progress on the issues we care about — immigration reform, climate change, balanced deficit reduction, reducing gun violence, and the implementation of the Affordable Care Act,” Barack Obama wrote. “I’m not going to be able to take them on without you.”
The email also contained a video link to Michelle Obama stressing the importance of Obama’s campaign volunteers helping to support Obama’s agenda.
“If we want to finish what we started and truly make that change we can believe in, we can’t stop now,” she says in the video. “Supporters like you will be the heart of this organization.”
Politico reports on how a 501(c) 4 stacks up against a SuperPAC:
When Obama for America relaunches next week as a tax-exempt organization, it will become exactly what Democrats have reviled over the last two years: a massive, powerful force in politics that doesn’t have to reveal anything about the donors behind it.
Democrats and liberals bashed the Koch brothers, Sheldon Adelson and other conservatives who spearheaded hundreds of millions of dollars in secret donations to groups like Crossroads GPS and Americans for Prosperity during the 2012 campaign. Obama, while raising over $1 billion himself, repeatedly lamented the influence of big money.
A Democratic official tells POLITICO the new group, Organizing for Action, plans to voluntarily disclose its donors, stay out of elections and follow all applicable laws governing nonprofits. It may run “issue” oriented television and radio ads and President Barack Obama may personally fundraise on behalf of the group.
Ironically, under the law, a super PAC would be more transparent. Unlike a super PAC, which has to file regular reports with the Federal Election Commission, the 501(c)4 non-profits don’t have to disclose their donors or amounts, so it’s up to each group to decide what (if anything) it makes public and when (if ever) that happens.
Barack Obama has miserably failed at his promise of being the most transparent administration in history. I’m not going to count on this non-profit campaign organization to be transparent and voluntarily disclose all of its donors.
Bryon Tau at Politico went on to write, “An aide familiar with the new nonprofit also told POLITICO that while corporate and unlimited donations, it would not accept money from lobbyists or other political action committees. The decision to accept corporate donations — a big reversal from Obama’s pledge to curb the influence of special interests in Washington — also has government watchdogs worried. The White House declined to comment.”
“It’s ironic and puzzling that a grassroots organization with a public interest agenda is going to take unlimited corporate money. It doesn’t square,” said Mary Boyle of Common Cause. “There’s one reason that corporations spends money on politics–they’re looking for something in return.”
Wynton Hall over at Breitbart points out the hypocrisy of the Obama with regards to this matter:
In 2008, President Obama refused to take corporate cash to fund his inaugural. In 2012, he reversed that decision, having recently accepted a $250,000 check from ExxonMobil. The fact a sitting president’s former campaign team will be accepting corporate donations, to some, smacks of a double-standard that invites cronyism. Adam Green, co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, blasted the decision:
“They won’t take money from MoveOn, Democracy for America, or Progressive Change Campaign Committee PACs, but will accept million-dollar checks from Bank of America and Goldman Sachs? What’s the principle there? No big bank or corporation will donate million-dollar checks to OFA without the expectation that it will impact which issues they engage on, and that’s very troubling,” Green said.
Finally the L.A. Times reports, “Jim Messina, who managed Obama’s 2012 campaign, will be chairman of the board, and longtime Obama advisor David Axelrod will serve as a consultant. David Plouffe, Obama’s top political advisor, will also have a role when he leaves the White House, a move expected to happen soon.”
“If we can take the enthusiasm and passion that people showed throughout the campaign and channel it into the work ahead of us, we will be unstoppable,” Messina wrote in an email to campaign donors.
This is nothing more than using the system to accumulate money to attack Obama’s political enemies and push his socialistic agenda upon the American people. Sadly, he has already duped many in America that will continue to support his regime and now he’ll continue that under the guise of a non-profit organization. Talk about cronyism!
source: freedomoutpost
