Defunding the Left

For years, "defunding the left" has been an idea that has resonated deeply with conservatives. Now that Republicans have control of the White House and Congress, it's an idea whose time may be coming faster than you think. President Bush's initiative to move government services to faith-based organizations and the battle over the nomination of Attorney General John Ashcroft may provide the necessary trigger to turn the right's twenty-plus-year pipedream into a reality.

Terrence Scanlon, president of the Capital Research Center (CRC), and Mark R. Levin, head of the Landmark Legal Foundation are two longtime conservative activists on the front lines of this fight.

Scanlon's Capital Research Center, founded in 1984, is one of the lesser-known Washington, DC-based think tanks that serves as a conservative watchdog over so-called liberal/left nonprofit philanthropic institutions. CRC's analyzes how "those organizations with tax-exempt, tax-deductible -- and sometimes tax dollars -- mix advocacy and 'direct action' to promote their own vision of the public interest." CRC also looks at how closely individuals in the corporate and foundation sectors are sticking to the "donor intent" of the founders of these corporations.

In mid-February, Scanlon told a packed house at the 28th annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) that "for the first time we have an opportunity to go after these [liberal nonprofit] groups and take away their federal money." Conservative News Service (CNS) reported that in his remarks, Scanlon named several organizations that are receiving federal funding including the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP). He told the gathering that the "AARP received $73 million in federal grants in 1999, 73 million of your tax dollars went to the AARP. Most of this money came from the Labor Department for job training programs for seniors."

Scanlon pointed to what he considered the most "egregious" example of a group getting federal funds -- the National Council of Senior Citizens (NCSC). Founded in 1960 during the Kennedy-Johnson campaign, Scanlon said that NCSC "were well known four years ago during the Hillary Clinton health care debate when they were lobbying for national health care. Their budget is 96 percent federally funded. If it were not for federal dollars there would be no National Council for Senior Citizens."

Mark R, Levin, head of the Landmark Legal Foundation has been doing more than giving speeches about challenging federal funding of liberal non-profit groups. During the first week in February, Landmark announced the formation of its "501-C Project" which intends to "ensure that liberal non-profit organizations that lobby against presidential appointments comply with U.S. tax and lobbying laws."

The Unification Church-owned Washington Times reported that Landmark has asked the Internal Revenue Service "to investigate accusations that several civil rights groups and other nonprofit organizations violated their federal tax-exempt status by participating in lobbying efforts against the nomination of John Ashcroft as attorney general."

According to Levin: "Published reports reveal that scores of liberal, 501(c) tax-exempt groups spent the last month, and hundreds of thousands of dollars, in a well-coordinated and highly organized lobbying campaign against the Ashcroft nomination. They have also announced that they will lobby against future nominees who they consider too conservative. The IRS must look at these activities very carefully to ensure that these organizations are not skirting the law or failing to pay their taxes."

Levin pointed to a January 9 meeting of organizations opposed to Ashcroft's nomination, held at the headquarters of the American Association of University Women. Called by the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, among the groups Levin identified as present were the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), the Sierra Club, Planned Parenthood, the National Organization for Women's Legal Defense and Education Fund, the National Education Association and the National Black Women's Health Project.