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Americans for Tax Reform

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Americans for Tax Reform (ATR) is a politically conservative[1] U.S. advocacy group whose stated goal is "a system in which taxes are simpler, flatter, more visible, and lower than they are today." According to ATR, "The government's power to control one's life derives from its power to tax. We believe that power should be minimized." The organization is known for its "Taxpayer Protection Pledge", which asks candidates for federal and state office to commit themselves in writing to oppose all tax increases. The founder and president of ATR is Grover Norquist, a conservative tax activist.

Americans for Tax Reform
AbbreviationATR
Formation1985
TypeAdvocacy group
Legal status501(c)(4) organization
Headquarters722 12th Street NW
Location
Region served
United States
President & Founder
Grover Norquist
Director
Michael Palicz
Executive Director
Christopher Butler
Websitewww.atr.org

Structure

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Americans for Tax Reform is a 501(c)(4) organization with 14 employees, finances of $3,912,958, and a membership of 60,000 (as of 2004).[2] It was founded by Grover Norquist in 1985.[3]

The associated educational wing is the Americans for Tax Reform Foundation, which is classified as a 501(c)(3) research and educational organization. The purpose of both entities is to educate and/or lobby against all tax increases.

Affiliated organizations

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Americans for Tax Reform is an associate member of the State Policy Network, a U.S. national network of free-market oriented think tanks.[4][5] Americans for Tax Reform is a grantee of the Donors Trust, a nonprofit donor-advised fund.[6][7][3]

Projects

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Taxpayer Protection Pledge

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Since 1986, ATR has sponsored the Taxpayer Protection Pledge, a written promise by legislators and candidates for office that commits them to oppose tax increases. All candidates for state and federal office, and all incumbents are offered the Pledge. Nearly 1,400 elected officials, from state representatives, to governors, to US Senators, have signed the Pledge.[8] There are separate versions at the national and state level.[9][10]

In the version for the U.S. House of Representatives, the signer pledges to:[11]

ONE, oppose any and all efforts to increase the marginal income tax rates for individuals and/or businesses; and TWO, oppose any net reduction or elimination of deductions and credits, unless matched dollar for dollar by further reducing tax rates.

In the version for state legislators, the signer pledges that:[12]

I will oppose and vote against any and all efforts to increase taxes.

In the 112th Congress serving in years 2011 and 2012, all but six of the 242 Republican members plus two Democratic members of the U.S. House of Representatives, for a total of 238 – a majority of that body – as well as all but seven of the 47 Republican members plus one Democratic member of the U.S. Senate, for a total of 41, have signed the Taxpayer Protection Pledge.[13] All except 13 sitting Republicans have signed the pledge, while three Democrats have signed it (outgoing-Sen. Ben Nelson (NE) and House members Robert Andrews (NJ) and Ben Chandler (KY)).[13]

ATR's president Grover Norquist has written about the importance of the "Taxpayer Protection Pledge" for many publications including Human Events in June 2010. In this article, Norquist writes,

Raising taxes is what politicians do when they don't have the strength to actually govern. The taxpayer protection pledge was created in 1986 by Americans for Tax Reform as part of the effort to protect the lower marginal tax rates of Reagan's Tax Reform Act of 1986. It has grown in importance as one of the few black-and-white, yes or no, answers that politicians are forced to give to voters before they ask for their vote.[14]

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) and individual Democratic candidates began attacking "The Taxpayer Protection Pledge" and its signers during the 2010 cycle with charges that the pledge protected tax breaks for companies shipping jobs overseas. The first appearance of the argument arose in the HI-01 special election.[15] Americans for Tax Reform responded by calling the attack ad "blatantly false." They pointed out that the Pledge does not prohibit any deduction or credit from being eliminated. It only prevents individuals and/or businesses from experiencing an overall increase in income taxes and allows for revenue-neutral tax reform.[16]

The non-partisan, nonprofit Factcheck.org reviewed the DCCC's ad and agreed with ATR that the ad was "blatantly false." The director of Factcheck.org, Brooks Jackson, wrote

It was called "blatantly false" by Americans for Tax Reform, the Republican-leaning group that got Djou's signature on its anti-tax pledge. We agree. ATR's tax pledge does protect corporations in general – but only from an overall increase in taxes. It says nothing about jobs at all. More important, it does not rule out an overhaul of the tax code. Signers agree to oppose any "net" reduction of deductions or credits "unless matched dollar for dollar by further reducing tax rates."[17]

According to The Hill, the Democrats' net pickup of eight seats in the House of Representatives in the November 2012 election, combined with several Republicans' disavowal of the pledge, means that the pledge will no longer have the support of a majority of that chamber when the new Congress convenes in January 2013. Norquist claims that 219 Republicans support the pledge; this figure, however, includes several Republicans who have signed the pledge only to disavow it later.[18]

Ronald Reagan Legacy Project

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Created in 1997, ATR's Ronald Reagan Legacy Project, has worked toward seeing each county in the United States commemorate the former president in a "significant" and "public" way, such as the naming of a public building. The project has also supported efforts to place Reagan on the ten-dollar bill.[19] The project has also encouraged state governors declare February 6 to be "Ronald Reagan Day"; as of 2006, 40 governors have done so.[20]

Center for Fiscal Accountability

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Since 2008, ATR has sought to encourage transparency and accountability in government through the Center for Fiscal Accountability. The organization's mission includes supporting the creation of searchable online databases of government spending, among other initiatives.[20]

Cost of Government Day

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ATR sponsors the calculation of "Cost of Government Day", the day on which, by its calculations, "Americans stop working to pay the costs of taxation, deficit spending, and regulations by federal and state governments."[21] Since 2008 the event has been sponsored by the Center for Fiscal Accountability.

Property Rights Alliance

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The Property Rights Alliance[22] is a project of Americans for Tax Reform. It produces the International Property Rights Index annually, ranking individual rights to own private property in countries worldwide. The index focuses on three main factors. These include: Legal and Political environment (LP), Physical Property Rights (PPR), and Intellectual Property rights (IPR).[23] In 2021 it published a Trade Barrier Index.[24]

Failure of IRS to protect confidential tax information

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In October 2014 the ATR said that a report by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) found that the IRS has not been safeguarding federal tax information properly. The tax information is gathered by the IRS from the tax returns filed in the United States.

The IRS provides confidential information to over 280 federal, state and local agencies. According to this TIGTA report the IRS's Internal Revenue Manual does not require on-site validation of an agency's ability to protect federal tax information and does not set any guidelines for an agency's background investigation for accessing this information.

The TIGTA report surveyed 15 agencies that receive federal tax information and found that none of them conducted sufficient background checks on employees handling the data: one agency conducted national background investigations, four agencies fingerprint employees and only one checks the sex offender registry. Almost half of the agencies hire convicted criminals.

Federal tax information provided to other agencies must remain confidential by federal law.[25]

Other projects

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ATR has several special project lines dedicated to specific issues including The American Shareholders Association (ASA), Alliance for Worker Freedom (AWF), and The Media Freedom Project (MFP).

In October 2010 ATR began mailing fliers to voters in Florida directing them to call Florida governor and Independent candidate for Senate, Charlie Crist. ATR's mailers included pictures of Crist with Obama and quotes from right wing authors.

Wednesday meetings

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Shortly after Bill Clinton's 1992 election, ATR headquarters became the site of a weekly, off-the-record get-together of conservatives to coordinate activities and strategy. The "Wednesday Meeting" of the Leave Us Alone Coalition soon became an important hub of conservative political organizing. Participants each week include Republican congressional leaders, right-leaning think tanks, conservative advocacy groups and K Street lobbyists. George W. Bush began sending a representative to the Wednesday Meeting even before he formally announced his candidacy for president in 1999, and continued to send representatives after his election in 2000.[26]

ATR has helped to establish regular meetings for conservatives nationwide, modeled after the Wednesday meetings in Washington, with the goal of creating a nationwide network of conservative activists to help support initiatives such as tax cuts and deregulation. There are now meetings in 48 states[27] and more internationally, with meetings in Canada, Austria, Belgium, Croatia, France, Italy, Japan, Spain, and the United Kingdom.[28]

The significance of the Wednesday meeting has influenced liberals and Democrats to organize similar meetings to coordinate activities about their shared agenda. In 2001, USA Today reported that Rep. Rosa DeLauro initiated such a meeting at the urging of then-House Democratic leader Richard Gephardt, even holding it on a Wednesday.[26]

Political positions

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The primary policy goal of Americans for Tax Reform is to reduce the percentage of the GDP consumed by the government.[27][29] ATR states that it "opposes all tax increases as a matter of principle."[30] Americans for Tax Reform seeks to curtail government spending by supporting Taxpayer Bill of Rights (TABOR) legislation[31] and transparency initiatives,[32] and opposing Democratic efforts to overhaul health care.[33]

ATR is a member of the Cooler Heads Coalition, which denies the scientific consensus on climate change, saying that "the science of global warming is uncertain, but the negative impacts of global warming policies on consumers are all too real."[34] ATR supported the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2006 and continues to favor a comprehensive immigration reform bill.[35]

ATR has called for cuts in the defense budget in order to reduce deficit spending.[36]

Legislation

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ATR supported the American Research and Competitiveness Act of 2014 (H.R. 4438; 113th Congress), a bill that would amend the Internal Revenue Code to modify the calculation method and the rate for the tax credit for qualified research expenses that expired at the end of 2013 and would make that modified credit permanent.[37] ATR argued that the bill would be "permanent tax relief for American employers" and pointed to the fact that the credit has been in existence since 1981, but businesses had always faced uncertainty about it due to Congress being forced to renew it 14 times.[38] ATR also argued that businesses already face high corporate income tax rates and that "investment in new technologies and sources of capital is under pressure from other areas of the tax code."[38]

ATR supports H.R. 6246, the Retirement Inflation Protection Act of 2016.[39] This act is designed to reduce the capital gains tax by reducing the tax on capital gains by the standardized inflation rate over the time period in which the capital was invested. ATR argues that by taxing the capital gains without taking into account the gains that occurred simply due to inflation, that investors are being punished for investing over a long period of time. The organization published an open letter to congressman urging them to vote in favor of the bill, which focuses on the harm that occurs to seniors due to the lack of protections that this bill would provide. This bill was introduced on September 28, 2016 into the U.S. Congress and as of November 2, 2016 has not been voted upon.[40]

Opposition to free automatic tax return filing and other efforts to make tax filing easier

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Tax preparation in the United States is different from that of many other countries in the world, in that the United States does not provide for taxes to be automatically filed by the tax authority. When it comes time to file taxes, the taxpayer must do it themselves personally, or pay to engage the services of a third-party tax preparer such as Intuit, even though in most cases the IRS already possesses all the information necessary to correctly file taxes for the taxpayer.[41]

For decades, for-profit tax-preparation companies have lobbied Congress to oppose any efforts that make taxes and tax filing simpler or easier for the tax payer. ATR typically joins these efforts to oppose making taxes easier for Americans.[42][43][44][45][46][47][48][49]

The average taxpayer of Europe spends 15 minutes and no money to file their annual personal taxes, whereas the average American taxpayer spends 8 hours per year and $115 USD. Tax preparers have a vested financial interest in taxes being difficult, with Intuit even going so far as to say in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that federal and local governments making taxes easier to file was a "a continued competitive threat to our business."[50] ATR's interests align with this in that they desire to keep taxes difficult to stoke anti-tax sentiment. That is to say, if paying taxes is "too easy", then people will be less likely to fight taxes in the way ATR wants.[42][43][51]

Norquist and the ATR have publicly argued that things that make tax filing easier on taxpayers constitute an automatic income tax audit on every taxpayer, and serves to keep people uninformed about how taxes work, and was an attempt by the IRS to "socialize all tax preparation in America."[45] In a 2005 presentation to the President's Advisory Panel on Federal Tax Reform, Norquist representing the ATR argued that if taxpayers did not have to prepare their own taxes, it "would allow the government to raise revenues invisibly."[52] While the ATR has argued against efforts that would eliminate reliance on third-party preparers, they have also argued that most Americans should not be required to pay for these third-party services.[53]

CARES Act

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During the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, the group received assistance between $150,000 and $350,000 in federally backed small business loans from PNC Bank as part of the Paycheck Protection Program. The group stated it would allow them to retain 33 jobs. Their loan was seen as notable, since they (and especially Norquist) campaign against excess government spending and are small-government advocates.[54][55][56]

Highlighting the loan amount, Roll Call noted that ATR and ATR Foundation pay Norquist a combined $250,000 annual salary. Norquist also previously criticized the unemployment protection of the CARES Act as "delaying recovery".[57][54]

Involvement with Jack Abramoff

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Further information: Jack Abramoff scandals

According to an investigative report from the Senate Indian Affairs Committee on the Jack Abramoff scandal, released in June 2006, ATR served as a "conduit" for funds that flowed from Abramoff's clients to finance surreptitiously grass-roots lobbying campaigns.[58] Records show that donations from the Choctaw and Kickapoo tribes to ATR were coordinated in part by Abramoff, and in some cases preceded meetings between the tribes and the White House.[58][59]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Goodnough, Abby; Kaplan, Thomas; Pear, Robert (March 8, 2017). "Health Providers Denounce G.O.P. Bill as House Panels Get to Work". The New York Times.
  2. ^ "Americans for Tax Reform". Right Wing Watch. September 2006. Retrieved April 19, 2012.
  3. ^ a b "About Americans for Tax Reform". Americans for Tax Reform. 2011. Retrieved July 18, 2015.
  4. ^ Kopan, Tal (November 13, 2013). "Report: Think tanks tied to Kochs". Politico. Retrieved February 24, 2015.
  5. ^ "Directory SPN Members". State Policy Network. Archived from the original on March 18, 2015. Retrieved March 23, 2015.
  6. ^ Kroll, Andy (February 5, 2013). "Exposed: The Dark-Money ATM of the Conservative Movement". Mother Jones. Retrieved July 18, 2015. recipients of Donors Trust money include...Americans for Tax Reform
  7. ^ Ball, Whitney L. (2010). "Return of Organization Exempt From Income Tax" (PDF). Nonprofit Explorer. ProPublica. p. 29.
  8. ^ "About Americans for Tax reforms". Americans for Tax Reforms. Retrieved November 2, 2016.
  9. ^ "Federal Taxpayer Protection Pledge Q & A" (PDF). Americans for Tax Reform. Archived from the original (PDF) on June 16, 2010. Retrieved November 7, 2009.
  10. ^ "State Taxpayer Protection Pledge Q & A" (PDF). Americans for Tax Reform. Archived from the original (PDF) on June 12, 2010. Retrieved November 7, 2009.
  11. ^ "U.S. House: Taxpayer Protection Pledge" (PDF). Americans for Tax Reform. 2011. Archived from the original (PDF) on June 1, 2010. Retrieved December 29, 2011.
  12. ^ "State Legislator: Taxpayer Protection Pledge" (PDF). Americans for Tax Reform. 2011. Archived from the original (PDF) on December 15, 2011. Retrieved December 29, 2011.
  13. ^ a b "The Taxpayer Protection Pledge Signers" (PDF). Retrieved September 30, 2011.
  14. ^ Norquist, Grover (June 22, 2009). "Anti-Tax Pledge Takes on Urgency". Human Events. Washington, DC. Archived from the original on June 17, 2011. Retrieved October 9, 2010.
  15. ^ Kraushaar, Josh (April 6, 2010). "DCCC hits Djou in new ads". Politico. Washington, DC.
  16. ^ Radman, Adam (April 7, 2010). "DCCC Attacks Charles Djou with False Claims about the Taxpayer Protection Pledge". Americans for Tax Reform. Archived from the original on September 17, 2010. Retrieved October 9, 2010.
  17. ^ Jackson, Brooks (April 9, 2010). "A False Tax Attack". Factcheck.org. Archived from the original on October 6, 2010. Retrieved October 9, 2010.
  18. ^ Berman, Russell. Norquist tax pledge takes election hit. The Hill, 2012-11-13.
  19. ^ "Reagan Backers Weigh Ways to Honor His Memory". Associated Press. June 10, 2004. Retrieved November 7, 2009.
  20. ^ a b "About the Center for Fiscal Accountability". Center for Fiscal Accountability. Archived from the original on November 1, 2009. Retrieved November 7, 2009.
  21. ^ "Cost of Government Day, 2005: Wasteful Spending Takes Its Toll". Citizens Against Government Waste. Archived from the original on October 2, 2009. Retrieved November 7, 2009.
  22. ^ "About". Property Rights Alliance. 2009. Retrieved April 19, 2012.
  23. ^ "International Property Rights Index". Americans For Tax Reforms Foundation. Braynard Group Inc. Archived from the original on February 23, 2019. Retrieved November 2, 2016.
  24. ^ Trade Barrier Index report
  25. ^ "New Report Finds IRS Failing to Protect Confidential Tax Information". October 22, 2014.
  26. ^ a b Page, Susan (June 1, 2001). "Norquist's Power High, Profile Low". USA Today. Retrieved November 7, 2009.
  27. ^ a b Cassidy, John (July 25, 2001). "Wednesdays With Grover". The New Yorker. Retrieved November 7, 2009.
  28. ^ "Grover Norquist". WhoRunsGov.com. The Washington Post Company. Archived from the original on May 14, 2015. Retrieved March 21, 2010.
  29. ^ "Cost of Government Day 2008". Center For Fiscal Accountability. Archived from the original on July 10, 2009. Retrieved November 7, 2009.
  30. ^ "The Great Tax Debate". NOW With Bill Moyers. Archived from the original on December 3, 2009. Retrieved November 7, 2009.
  31. ^ Tom, Bell (May 14, 2001). "Tax-Reform Guru Touts TABOR II". Morning Sentinel. Archived from the original on November 1, 2009. Retrieved November 7, 2009.
  32. ^ "Advocates of Florida Spending Transparency Hold Press Conference" (Press release). Reuters. October 28, 2008. Archived from the original on November 1, 2009. Retrieved November 7, 2009.
  33. ^ "Taxpayer Group Launches Petition to Ask Sen. Ben Nelson to Keep His Pledge" (Press release). Reuters. October 28, 2009. Archived from the original on November 1, 2009. Retrieved October 29, 2009.
  34. ^ [1], itself quoting [2]
  35. ^ "Taxpayer Group Hails Senate Passage of Comprehensive Immigration Reform" (Press release). Americans for Tax Reform. May 25, 2006. Archived from the original on November 1, 2009. Retrieved November 7, 2009.
  36. ^ "Senate Appropriators Offer Fake Freeze in Place of Spending Cuts" ATR, September 19, 2011.
  37. ^ "CBO - H.R. 4438". Congressional Budget Office. May 2014. Retrieved May 6, 2014.
  38. ^ a b Ellis, Ryan (May 5, 2014). "ATR Supports H.R. 4438, Permanent Research and Development Tax Cut". American for Tax Reform. Retrieved May 7, 2014.
  39. ^ "ATR Supports H.R. 6246, the Retirement Inflation Protection Act of 2016". Americans for Tax Reform. November 2, 2016.
  40. ^ "H.R.6246 — 114th Congress (2015-2016)" Congress, November 2, 2016.
  41. ^ Barro, Josh (April 17, 2012). "Why doesn't the IRS do your taxes for you?". Forbes. Retrieved January 7, 2022.
  42. ^ a b Bankman, Joseph; Hemel, Daniel; Ventry, Dennis (July 18, 2018). "Why filing taxes isn't easy". Politico. Retrieved January 7, 2022.
  43. ^ a b Matthews, Dylan (April 9, 2019). "A bipartisan group in Congress wants to make it harder for you to do taxes". Vox. Retrieved January 7, 2022.
  44. ^ Yglesias, Matthew (April 16, 2012). "Who Wants Taxes To Be More Complicated?". Slate. Retrieved January 7, 2022.
  45. ^ a b Day, Liz (March 26, 2013). "How the Maker of TurboTax Fought to Keep Your Taxes Complicated". The Atlantic. Retrieved January 7, 2022.
  46. ^ James, Downie (April 15, 2015). "Conservatives and the makers of TurboTax want to keep your taxes difficult". Washington Post. Retrieved January 7, 2022.
  47. ^ Manjoo, Farhad (April 15, 2015). "Would You Let the I.R.S. Prepare Your Taxes?". New York Times. Retrieved January 7, 2022.
  48. ^ Hiltzik, Michael (April 14, 2015). "The tax-prep industry lobbies hard to keep Tax Day a torture for you". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved January 7, 2022.
  49. ^ Staff of Sen. Elizabeth Warren (2016). Tax Maze: How the Tax Prep Industry Blocks Government from Making Tax Day Easier (PDF) (Report). United States Senate. Retrieved January 7, 2022. While some simplification approaches would be consistent with their goals, antitax groups have nevertheless also opposed return-free filing. Anti-tax groups frequently raise concerns about the complexity of the tax code and the substantial burdens imposed by the current tax filing process: the mission of Americans for Tax Reform, for example, includes creating "a system in which taxes are simpler." A voluntary return-free filing program would address these concerns, simplifying filing, strengthening taxpayers' right to know the information the IRS had received on them from third parties, and substantially enhancing taxpayer freedom to choose how to file their taxes. But the same anti-tax groups that champion a simpler tax system have worked closely with the tax preparation industry to oppose free filing
  50. ^ Tong, Scott (October 12, 2017). "Many countries help people prepare their taxes for free. Why doesn't the U.S.?". Marketplace.org. Retrieved January 7, 2022. Intuit, the maker of TurboTax, has hinted at this in Securities and Exchange Commission filings. In its 2016 Form 10-K submitted to the SEC, Intuit stated: "We anticipate that governmental encroachment at both the federal and state levels may present a continued competitive threat to our business for the foreseeable future."
  51. ^ Hanson, Tim (June 7, 2005). "IRS considers ditching dreaded 1040". MSN. Archived from the original on April 18, 2012. Retrieved January 7, 2022.
  52. ^ Norquist, Grover (May 17, 2005). "Meeting of the President's Advisory Panel on Federal Tax Reform: May 17, 2005 - 9:30 AM". President's Advisory Panel on Federal Tax Reform. United States Government Publishing Office. Retrieved January 7, 2022.
  53. ^ Hendrie, Alexander (April 12, 2016). "Conservatives Support Legislation to Make Free File Permanent". Americans for Tax Reform. Retrieved January 7, 2022.
  54. ^ a b Vocal Opponents of Federal Spending Took PPP Loans, Including Ayn Rand Institute, Grover Norquist Group, Andrew Solender, Forbes, July 6, 2020
  55. ^ Syed, Moiz; Willis, Derek (July 7, 2020). "AMERICANS FOR TAX REFORM FOUNDATION - Coronavirus Bailouts - ProPublica". ProPublica. Retrieved July 9, 2020.
  56. ^ Brody, Ben (July 6, 2020). "Norquist's Anti-Spending Group Took Small Business Relief". Bloomberg.
  57. ^ Chris Cioffi (July 6, 2020). "Groups critical of taxes, spending not opposed to PPP loans". Roll Call. Retrieved July 9, 2020.
  58. ^ a b Schmidt, Susan; Grimaldi, James V. (June 25, 2006). "Nonprofit Groups Funneled Money For Abramoff". The Washington Post. Retrieved November 7, 2009.
  59. ^ Shenon, Phillip (March 10, 2006). "$25,000 to Lobby Group is Tied to Access to Bush". The New York Times. Retrieved November 7, 2009.
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