Did you see the news that Democrat candidate for President Beto O’Rourke told an audience recently that he wanted to pull the tax exempt status of any religious organization that refused to perform gay marriages?
Well after having followed the fake non-profits hired by the feds to place refugees into unsuspecting towns and cities for over a decade, I have been thinking that we ought to pull the tax exempt status of any ‘religious’ group that operates in secrecy, gobbles up millions of tax payer dollars and then goes out and protests against the President (who is funding them!)….
….You know groups like the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, Church World Service, and Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service.
But holy cow! I never expected to see the Daily Caller carrying the water for those federal refugee CONTRACTORS in order to take a swipe at Beto.
The Daily Caller, called by wikipedia a right wing media outfit started by Tucker Carlson in 2010, must be trying to suck up to the Left with this distorted piece about how much religious groups do to help the poor and struggling refugees coming into the US from the third world.
Go for it, help the poor refugees (ignoring vulnerable Americans!), but do it with your own private charitable resources—NOT WITH TAXPAYER DOLLARS AND TAX EXEMPT STATUS!
[I just had a look at dozens of posts about the US Conference of Catholic Bishops and the millions it receives from the federal government and came across this 2017 post where Tucker Carlson eviscerates the Bishop’s Washington, DC lobbyist! Clearly Carlson is ‘Tucker who?’ at the Daily Caller!]
So what got me fired up this morning?
It is this headline at the Daily Caller:
Religious Institutions Support Refugees, But Beto Wants To Take Away Their Tax-Exempt Status
What do you mean by “but?” I agree with Beto—take away their tax-exempt status! Of course, however, the young Catholic-educated reporter is referring to his statement about gay marriage.
Here are the opening two paragraphs in a report by Mary Margaret Olohan:
2020 presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke wants to take away religious institution’s tax-exempt status if they will not perform same-sex marriages, but religious institutions make major contributions in helping refugees.
O’Rourke sparked backlash at CNN’s LGBTQ forum on Oct. 10 when he said that religious institutions that would not perform same-sex marriages should lose their tax-exempt status. He reiterated his statements Sunday, adding that this would apply to mosques and minority churches.
And, then she uses the supposed good works of two of nine refugee contractors to make her gushing points about how they help refugees and thus it’s an outrage for Beto (who loves refugees!) to suggest these benevolent politically Leftwing groups should lose tax exempt status.
Let me say it more clearly, it isn’t just that these ‘religious charities’ help refugees with taxpayer dollars, they promote illegal immigration and they actively protest on the streets against this President while living almost entirely on OUR US Treasury!
You can read more from Ms. Mary Margaret Olohan, the Daily Caller‘s Social Issues reporter, yourself, but since she extols the virtues of Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service (LIRS) as an example of a ‘religious charity’ making a major contribution to helping refugees (not American poor people!), I thought I would have a look at their most recent IRS Form 990.
[I mentioned the latest finances of the US Catholic Bishops here at ‘Frauds and Crooks.’]
First take a trip down memory lane and see this post about LIRS I wrote on Valentine’s day 2018:
Lutherans announce departure of CEO Hartke amid claims of financial irregularities, poor management
During the Obama years LIRS was 95% federally funded. According to the most recently available Form 990 (2018) they have slipped some and only received 87% of their funding from the US taxpayer—$41 million!
But here is the stunner! CEO Hartke was getting the heave-ho that year, but look at the salary she got going out the door! Over $400,000! That is about $80,000 more than the previous year! Pay-off?
What good is it if we have “right wing” media doing propaganda for Open Borders Inc?
So, I suggest Ms. Olohan do a little more research before picking which ‘religious charities’ to use as examples of virtue. And, btw, where was her editor?
Endnote: I don’t want to sound like I’m whining, but I’ve just spent a couple of hours (I don’t get paid!) doing research that salary-collecting reporters should be doing.
The transgressions of LIRS have been widely reported for years and even if she couldn’t find my work because WordPressdotcom killed RRW, Breitbart did do a bunch of stories on the financial scandal surrounding Hartke’s departure.