The IRS Wants To Make Campaign Contributions Public

Spending on political campaigns has grown enormously since the Supreme Court ruling which enabled wealthy individuals and groups to make unlimited secret donations to non-profit political organizations.  Many of the donations are tax deductible and kept secret from the public.  In theory these organizations have been determined to be "public welfare" groups by the IRS.  The IRS has decided to impose more stringent standards on these groups that would require them to let the public know where the money came from.  This editorial in the NYT supports this move by the IRS to limit secret donations to tax exempt "public welfare" organizations.  It is a step in the right direction but it is opposed by the affected groups on both sides of the political spectrum.  Hopefully, the IRS will be able to overcome the efforts of these organizations to prevent the IRS from making it more difficult to corrupt our political system.