The Obama administration on Tuesday responded to the request of Rep. Mike Kelly, R-Pa., for an audit of Planned Parenthood by the Internal Revenue Service.
At the regular briefing for White House reporters, I reminded press secretary Josh Earnest of the administration’s much-stated opposition to congressional efforts to defund Planned Parenthood.
Noting that Kelly’s three-months-old request was separate from the defunding movement, I asked Earnest what the administration’s reaction would be to an IRS audit of the controversial organization.
“The IRS is an independent enforcement agency,” the president’s top spokesman told me, “and this administration has worked hard to ensure that the IRS’ activities are not influenced by the political debate.
“And that is a principle that we have worked aggressively to uphold and it’s certainly one that I believe that every member of Congress should respect.”
Soon after Earnest’s response, House Ways and Means Committee member Kelly told me that “if the White House truly believes that the IRS’ activities shouldn’t be influenced by politics, as it ironically claims, then the president should support a nonpartisan, thorough analysis of Planned Parenthood’s potentially criminal operations.”
In June, Kelly told Newsmax he had written IRS Commissioner John Koskinen requesting an audit of Planned Parenthood after reading the group’s 990 Form of June 30, 2013.
"We found they had revenues of $196,986,791,” he said. “But when we looked a bit deeper, we found that a lot of where that money was going to was simply put under the general heading of 'fees for services.'"
The details of those fees have, in Kelly’s words, "been left open to the imagination."
Most significant, Kelly stressed, is that "if the reports are true that Planned Parenthood has engaged in and profited from the sale of fetal tissues and organs, then this is illegal activity and certainly not covered by the tax-exempt status this organization has under the U.S. Tax Code as a 501(c)(3)."
Under Section 501(c)(3), a tax-exempt organization must be operated exclusively "for religious, charitable, scientific, testing for public safety, literary, or educational purposes" or "for the prevention of cruelty to children or animals."
On Tuesday, Kelly told me that his proposed audit is “not about a political debate. It’s not about anyone’s particular opinion of Planned Parenthood. It’s about taking evidence seriously, obeying the law, and defending hardworking Americans' taxpayer dollars.”
John Gizzi is chief political columnist and White House correspondent for Newsmax.
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