title:  House Republicans Just Tried To Hand America’s Elections Over To The Koch Brothers
text: The Koch brothers have just received a huge legislative gift from House Republicans. On Thursday, the Ways and Means Committee voted on a bill that would make dark money even darker. In a 23-15 vote split along party lines, the committee approved the bill. After the Supreme Court s Citizen s United decision, a flood of dark money has been funneled into U.S. political system. Now, the Koch Brothers and their Republican goons in the House are trying to make it harder to know who is donating money to these non-profit groups.U.S. Representative Peter J. Roskam (R-IL) introduced the bill, which is titled the Preventing IRS Abuse and Protecting Free Speech Act. The bill would change the current law so that non-profit organizations no longer have to disclose their donors to the IRS. The Kochs and Republicans have argued that these donor lists only serve to give the IRS a way to intimidate those who donate to certain non-profit groups.Koch Companies Public Sector president Phillip Ellender released a letter in support of the bill which says: The targeting of non-profit organizations by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to limit free speech under this Administration is well documented. From the IRS subjecting donors of nonprofit organizations to the gift tax, to the direct targeting of conservative non-profit organizations based solely on their beliefs, this legislation could not be more pertinent. Considering the pair of reports released earlier this year by the Government Accountability Office (GAO), it s even more pressing. The GAO found serious internal control flaws within the IRS that could allow the agency to continue its targeting of certain Americans for audit  based on an organization s religious, educational, political, or other views. In reality, these lists are mainly used to prevent donations from people in foreign nations from influencing U.S. elections. If this bill were to pass it would open up the floodgates for foreign contributions into the U.S. political system. Democracy 21, an organization that advocates for fair elections and campaign finance reform, released a statement where they said: Currently, the fact that nonprofit groups have to report their donors, including foreign donors, to the IRS serves as a check against any nonprofit taking the risk of illegally spending these funds in federal elections. By eliminating this reporting requirement, as the Roskam bill does, there would be no way for anyone to know whether foreign money was being illegally spent through a nonprofit in a federal election and there would be no way to hold violators accountable for their illegal activities. This move by the Koch brothers is nothing more than an attempt to further erode democracy in the U.S. The reality that U.S. politicians can be bought and sold by  charities  is bad enough. The idea that they could be financed in part or totally by people who are not U.S. citizens is downright scary. This bill is treasonous and those who support it should be considered traitors to the U.S. It should concern both on the right and the left.You can watch the Ways and Means Committee session on the bill below:Featured Image from (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)