March, 09 2012, 03:30pm EDT
Common Cause seeks IRS review of Koch brothers takeover attempt at Cato
Letter questions whether Cato can retain its tax-exempt status without changing its unusual structure
WASHINGTON
Amid attempts by industrialists Charles and David Koch to take control of the Cato Institute, a long-established think tank advocating libertarian ideas, Common Cause called Friday for an Internal Revenue Service investigation of Koch efforts to use Cato's corporate structure and tax exempt status to serve their own political and economic interests.
"We may disagree on many public policy questions, but Cato has an admirable history of independent thought and advocacy," said Bob Edgar, Common Cause's president and CEO. "Cato should have a corporate structure that protects its independence; if it lacks such a structure and can be turned into a partisan political organization, it should not be permitted to enjoy the benefits of a tax exemption."
In a letter to the IRS, Common Cause noted that Marcus Owens, a former top IRS official and expert on tax exemptions, has suggested that Cato's current structure contains a "fatal flaw" that "raises questions about whether it meets the requirements for a nonprofit under federal tax law." Because Cato's charter apparently allows the board to agree to sell control of the organization to the highest bidder, it is "completely at odds with the requirements for [a nonprofit]," Owens contends.
The Koch brothers filed a lawsuit last week seeking to take control of Cato. Charles Koch is one of Cato's founders and he and his brother own two of four "shareholder" seats on its board. The Kochs, who've reportedly organized efforts to raise $100 million or more to defeat President Obama in November, are seeking a third seat, which was vacated last year by the death of one of the other founders.
"This is an effort by the Kochs to turn the Cato Institute into some sort of auxiliary for the GOP," Edward H. Crane, who is president of Cato, told the Washington Post this week. "What (Charles Koch) is doing now is detrimental to Cato, it's detrimental to Koch Industries, it's detrimental to the libertarian movement."
"Of course the Kochs have every right to express their political ideas and support or oppose any candidates they choose," Edgar said, "But using a tax-exempt group to pursue partisan or economic gain cheats American taxpayers and violates federal law."
"This dispute dramatically illustrates the growing threat to our democracy caused by powerful corporations and billionaires misusing nonprofit groups to influence our elections and elected representatives, and drown out the voices of American voters," Edgar said.
Common Cause is a nonpartisan, grassroots organization dedicated to upholding the core values of American democracy. We work to create open, honest, and accountable government that serves the public interest; promote equal rights, opportunity, and representation for all; and empower all people to make their voices heard in the political process.
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UN Chief Warns of Israel's Syria Invasion and Land Seizures
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres stressed the "urgent need" for Israel to "de-escalate violence on all fronts."
Dec 12, 2024
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said Thursday that he is "deeply concerned" by Israel's "recent and extensive violations of Syria's sovereignty and territorial integrity," including a ground invasion and airstrikes carried out by the Israel Defense Forces in the war-torn Mideastern nation.
Guterres "is particularly concerned over the hundreds of Israeli airstrikes on several locations in Syria" and has stressed the "urgent need to de-escalate violence on all fronts throughout the country," said U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric.
Israel claims its invasion and bombardment of Syria—which come as the United States and Turkey have also violated Syrian sovereignty with air and ground attacks—are meant to create a security buffer along the countries' shared border in the wake of last week's fall of former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and amid the IDF's ongoing assault on Gaza, which has killed or wounded more than 162,000 Palestinians and is the subject of an International Court of Justice genocide case.
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"The Syrian army abandoned its positions in the area... which potentially creates a vacuum that could have been filled by terrorist organizations," U.S. State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said at a press briefing earlier this week. "Israel has said that these actions are temporary to defend its borders. These are not permanent actions... We support all sides upholding the 1974 disengagement agreement."
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"Killing people is not the way we're going to reform our healthcare system," he said. "The way we're going to reform our healthcare system is having people come together."
Dec 12, 2024
Addressing the assassination of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson and conversations it has sparked about the country's for-profit system, longtime Medicare for All advocate Sen. Bernie Sanders on Wednesday condemned the murder and stressed that getting to universal coverage will require a movement challenging corporate money in politics.
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In addition to highlighting Sanders' interview on social media, Congressman Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) pointed out to Business Insider on Wednesday that "you've got thousands of people that are sharing their stories of frustration" in the wake of Thompson's death.
Khanna—a co-sponsor of the Medicare for All Act, led in the House of Representatives by Congressional Progressive Caucus Chair Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.)—made the case that you can recognize those stories without accepting the assassination.
"You condemn the murder of an insurance executive who was a father of two kids," he said. "At the same time, you say there's obviously an outpouring behavior of people whose claims are being denied, and we need to reform the system."
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Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.)—a co-sponsor of Sanders' Medicare for All Act—similarly toldHuffPost in a Tuesday interview, "The visceral response from people across this country who feel cheated, ripped off, and threatened by the vile practices of their insurance companies should be a warning to everyone in the healthcare system."
"Violence is never the answer, but people can be pushed only so far," she continued. "This is a warning that if you push people hard enough, they lose faith in the ability of their government to make change, lose faith in the ability of the people who are providing the healthcare to make change, and start to take matters into their own hands in ways that will ultimately be a threat to everyone."
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Reporters Without Borders' (RSF) 2024 roundup, which was published Thursday, found that at least 54 journalists were killed on the job or in connection with their work this year, and 18 of them were killed by Israeli armed forces (16 in Palestine, and two in Lebanon).
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"In Gaza, the scale of the tragedy is incomprehensible," wrote Thibaut Bruttin, director general of RSF, in the introduction to the report. Since October 2023, 145 journalists have been killed in Gaza, "including at least 35 who were very likely targeted or killed while working."
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When counting the number of journalists killed by the Israeli army since October 2023 in both Gaza and Lebanon, the tally comes to 155—"an unprecedented massacre," according to the roundup.
Multiple journalists were also killed in Pakistan, Bangladesh, Mexico, Sudan, Myanmar, Colombia, and Ukraine, according to the report, and hundreds more were detained and are now behind bars in countries including Israel, China, and Russia.
Meanwhile, in a statement released Thursday, the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) announced that at least 139 Palestinian journalists and media workers have been killed since the war in Gaza began in 2023, and in a statement released Wednesday, IFJ announced that 104 journalists had perished worldwide this year (which includes deaths from January 1 through December 10). IFJ's number for all of 2024 appears to be higher than RSF because RSF is only counting deaths that occurred "on the job or in connection with their work."
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