Practical Progress *Special Edition*: Post-Election Agenda 6NOV14

A refreshing, non-hysterical analysis of the 2014 mid term election results and suggestions of where the progressive community goes from here, from the Agenda Project / Practical Progress.....
PRACTICAL PROGRESS: The Agenda Project Action Fund's actually brief briefing on the Most Important News from the Progressive Movement.
TIME TO FIGHT BACK -- The Nation Editors summed up the role of Progressives in the post-election climate: "Fighting bad proposals and bad compromises isn't enough. We need new thinking and new approaches" ... Republicans secured both Houses for the first time in eight years on Tuesday in an election largely shaped by restrictive voter ID laws  and a huge influx of campaign money ... WORD ON THE STREET: Demos: "We have to rethink the whole system" ... Common Cause: "See Who Spent the Most on Election 2014" ... American Constitution Society: "The Reality of Voting Rights on Election Day" ... Brennan Center: "How Much of a Difference Did New Voting Restrictions Make in Yesterday's Close Races?" and "Voter Identification, Ideology and the Voter Fraud Meme" ... AlterNet: "When Bullies Win: How Do Weary Americans Face the Post-Election Trauma?"
... SOME GOOD NEWS: Four states and two cities voted to give themselves a raise. Business for a Fair Minimum Wage CEO Holly Sklar tells PP: "Minimum wage ballot wins sent a clear message: Americans across the political spectrum want to raise the minimum wage" ... Meanwhile, Washington state scored a win for gun safety, California struck a blow to mass incarceration, Massachusetts secured its residents paid sick days, and Alaska, Oregon, and Washington DC voted to legalize marijuana. READ: "Weed Is Legal in Capital--and 10 Other Reasons the Election Wasn't a Total Bust" over at The Nation.
... THE BOTTOM LINE: Voter turnout--especially among youth, people of color, and low-income constituents--is on the decline, which is bad news for everyone. READ: "5 Ways Life in America Would Be Better If Everyone Voted" over at Rolling Stone by Demos Research Assistant Sean McElwee.
DON'T STOP BELIEVING -- Although Republicans gained control of the Senate on Tuesday, President Obama will likely still be able to appoint judges, according to a new report by Alliance for Justice (AFJ). The last three presidents to serve two terms--and who also faced an oppositional Senate--saw about 20% of their judges confirmed. AFJ President and Top Wonk Nan Aron: "... We need to redouble the fight to confirm judicial nominees who represent the full diversity of America and who are committed to upholding the rights of everyday Americans." READ: "Why No One Should Give Up On Judicial Confirmations in a Republican-Controlled Senate."
KEEP OUR WATER CLEAN -- Aging wastewater systems spill 900 billion gallons of untreated sewage and wastewater into U.S. waterways each year, according to a new Center for American Progress (CAP) report that comes on the second anniversary of Superstorm Sandy. CAP Policy Analyst Shiva Polefka: "By stepping up to make the investments we need for reliable, climate-change-ready wastewater infrastructure, policymakers can put Americans to work, protect our waterways, and avert significantly greater long-term costs." READ: "Rising Waters, Rising Threat: How Climate Change Endangers America's Neglected Wastewater Infrastructure."
OBAMACARE AND YOU -- The Urban Institute released a new report detailing the effects of the Affordable Care Act on small businesses. READ: "Monitoring the Impact of the Affordable Care Act on Employers."
APPLE STILL DODGING TAXES -- Apple CEO Tim Cook's coming-out essay has overshadowed news that despite congressional hearings, the company continues to divert its profits into tax havens overseas, according to Citizens for Tax Justice (CTJ). CTJ Senior Counsel Rebecca Wilkins: "The company has paid almost no tax on the foreign income despite having substantial sales in countries where the corporate tax rate is in the mid-20s." READ more HERE.
TANF IS TANKING -- The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) published new findings that the purchasing power of 98% of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) recipients is below 1996 levels after adjusting for inflation ... Congress has not renewed its support for researching ways to improve the program. READ CBPP's reports detailing the decrease in benefits and the shortsightedness of denying research funds HERE and HERE.
FROM THE WONK WIRE ...
... A MISSED OPPORTUNITY: Brennan Center for Justice Program Director and Top Wonk Inimai Chettiar and Brennan Center for Justice Program Assistant Abigail Finkelman explain why criminal justice policy is not a campaign issue.
... EMPLOYMENT FOR ALL: CEPR Co-Director and Top Wonk Dean Baker and Center on Budget and Policy Priorities Senior Fellow Jared Bernstein suggest that the real cause of stagnant wages and rising inequality is the absence of full employment.
... RETAKE DEMOCRACY: Fordham University Associate Law Professor and Top Wonk Zephyr Teachout envisions a future in which corporations do not own democracy.
... A STORY AS OLD AS AMERICA: Advancement Project Co-Director and Top Wonk Judith Browne-Dianis and Former Ohio Governor and CAP Action Fund President Ted Strickland connect Michael Brown to Emmett Till as part of a tragic legacy.
... AND THE WINNER IS: Brennan Center for Justice Democracy Program Director and Top Wonk Wendy Weiser and Deputy Director and Top Wonk Lawrence Norden think the real winners of the 2014 elections are the five conservative Supreme Court Justices.
Find out more at www.TopWonks.org.
... ON OUR AGENDA ...
Visit our website at www.PracticalProgress.org and our twitter @PractProgress. Like what you see? JOIN the movement by sending tips, news, and reactions to Hannah Hendler at hhendler@agendaproject.org.

GOP Bill Would Force IRS to Conduct Abortion Audits 18MAR11

WITH a growing budget deficit what we need is to direct IRS agents to monitor abortions and not tax fraud committed by the rich and corporate America costing the nation tens of billions of dollars.......This from Mojo......

Were you raped? Was it incest? And other questions the government's tax cops would have to ask women who've terminated pregnancies.

Under a GOP-backed bill expected to sail through the House of Representatives, the Internal Revenue Service would be forced to police how Americans have paid for their abortions. To ensure that taxpayers complied with the law, IRS agents would have to investigate whether certain terminated pregnancies were the result of rape or incest. And one tax expert says that the measure could even lead to questions on tax forms: Have you had an abortion? Did you keep your receipt?
In testimony to a House taxation subcommittee on Wednesday, Thomas Barthold, the chief of staff of the nonpartisan Joint Tax Committee, confirmed that one consequence of the Republicans' "No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act" would be to turn IRS agents into abortion cops—that is, during an audit, they'd have to detemine, from evidence provided by the taxpayer, whether any tax benefit had been inappropriately used to pay for an abortion.

The proposed law, also known as H.R. 3, extends the reach of the Hyde Amendment—which bans federal funding for abortion except in cases of rape, incest, or when the life of the mother is at stake—into many parts of the federal tax code. In some cases, the law would forbid using tax benefits—like credits or deductions—to pay for abortions or health insurance that covers abortion. If an American who used such a benefit were to be audited, Barthold said, the burden of proof would lie with the taxpayer to provide documentation, for example, that her abortion fell under the rape/incest/life-of-the-mother exception, or that the health insurance she had purchased did not cover abortions.
"Were this to become law, people could end up in an audit, the subject of which could be abortion, rape, and incest," says Christopher Bergin, the head of Tax Analysts, a nonpartisan, not-for-profit tax policy group. "If you pass the law like this, the IRS would be required to enforce it."
The proposal, which House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) has declared a top priority of the new Republican Congress, has 221 cosponsors and is expected to pass the House easily. The bill caused controversy and sparked a national protest campaign in January after Mother Jones reported that it would limit the Hyde Amendment's rape exception to cases of "forcible rape." Experts told Mother Jones that move could prevent Medicaid from paying for abortions in many rape cases, including statutory rapes. Despite the presence of many other controversial provisions, the bill regained momentum after its sponsors promised to strip the "forcible rape" language. But during Wednesday's hearing, Rep. Mike Thompson (D-Calif.) highlighted the IRS enforcement issue, which has until now flown under the radar. He asked:

Would a woman have to certify that the Health Savings Account funds she spent on birth control pills or for a doctor's visit weren't used to pay for an abortion? If a woman were audited, would IRS agents be at her house demanding court documents or affidavits proving that her pregnancy was the result of rape or incest?

Barthold replied that the taxpayer would have to prove that she had complied with all applicable abortion laws. Under standard audit procedure, a woman would have to provide evidence to corroborate facts about abortions, rapes, and cases of incest, says Marcus Owens, an accountant and former longtime IRS official. If a taxpayer received a deduction or tax credit for abortion costs related to a case of rape or incest, or because her life was endangered, then "on audit [she] would have to demonstrate or prove, ideally by contemporaneous written documentation, that it was incest, or rape, or [her] life was in danger," Owens says. "It would be fairly intrusive for the woman."
Not everyone has "contemporaneous written documentation" that a pregnancy was the result of rape or incest. And, as Owens notes, adults sometimes pay for abortions for their children. If H.R. 3 becomes law, parents could face IRS questions about whether they spent pre-tax money from health savings accounts on abortions for their kids. "It would seem there would have to be a question about that [in an audit] and maybe even a question on the tax return," Owens says.
The bill contains no instructions for how the IRS should enforce it. The wording of the legislation is so vague that the Joint Tax Committee offered several different interpretations of which parts of the tax code it might actually affect. But the law will unquestionably affect some portion of the tax code—an entire section of the bill is titled "Prohibition on Tax Benefits Relating to Abortion." (A spokesman for New Jersey GOP Rep. Chris Smith, the main author of the bill, did not respond to a request for comment. A spokesman for the IRS said the agency does not comment on pending legislation.)
"The Internal Revenue Service has no business interfering with a woman's right to a safe, legal, constitutionally-protected medical procedure," Thompson tells Mother Jones. "Private health care decisions belong to a woman, her family, and her doctor—not a government auditor."
Most IRS agents would likely agree, Owens says: "I don't think [IRS agents] enjoy prying around into those sorts of private matters." Another IRS veteran tells Mother Jones he doesn't believe his ex-colleagues would want to enforce such a law. "You can't ask people to go out and ask some woman about what the circumstances are surrounding her abortion. They just won't do it."
UPDATE: NARAL Pro-Choice America, one of the major groups supporting abortion rights, has issued a statement responding to this story:

"This bill gets more outrageous and insulting by the day. Not only would a woman have to describe her sexual assault to the police, but she could then be forced to relive that horrifying experience with an agent from the IRS," said Nancy Keenan, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America. "The 221 members of Congress who signed their names to this egregious bill must explain to their constituents why they want to give the IRS authority to audit rape survivors."

It's hard to know exactly what form "describ[ing] her sexual assault to the... IRS" would take, since this bill hasn't become law. But as I note in the story, "contemporaneous written documentation" is a general standard for the agency, so it's likely that, barring a change to the law, a woman would need to provide such documentation to the IRS during an audit. But what would meet the standard? A police report? Trial records? A doctor's note? Again, it's hard to predict.
UPDATE 2:  In comments, HyperTyler asks whether this means the GOP is abandoning HIPAA, the law that protects privacy of health records. Answer: not really. The law allows law enforcement agents to obtain such records by submitting a written request. IRS agents conducting an audit almost certainly qualify as law enforcement agents in this context.
UPDATE 3: Kevin Drum has more on this.

Nick Baumann covers national politics and civil liberties issues for Mother Jones' DC Bureau. For more of his stories, click here. You can also follow him on Twitter and Facebook. Email tips and insights to nbaumann [at] motherjones [dot] com. Get Nick Baumann's RSS feed.

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