Treasurers’ Union: A Treasure Trove for Democrats

The Internal Revenue Services claims to be “one of the world’s most efficient tax administrators.” But it may also be one of the most biased.

On Wednesday, IRS Commissioner Steven Miller resigned in light of allegations that the agency unfairly targeted specific organizations based on their conservative political beliefs.

How could the IRS, an agency whose legitimacy is based upon maintaining political neutrality, exhibit such bias? To answer this question we do not need to look much farther than the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU).

NTEU’s predecessor, the National Association of Employees of Collectors of the Internal Revenue (NAECIR), was founded in 1938 with the aim of securing fair working conditions and fair pay of federal revenue officers. As NAECIR continuously extended its scope, it changed its name to the National Association of Internal Revenue Employees (NAIRE). Then, in 1967 NAIRE was finally recognized as an official federal employee union.

In 1973, it began incorporating workers from the entire Treasury Department and changed its name yet again to the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU), as it is known today. NTEU continued to grow and in 1978 it began organizing employees of federal agencies outside Treasury Department as well.

Today NTEU is headed by President Colleen M. Kelley, currently serving her fourth term since 1999, and represents 150,000 employees across 31 federal agencies and departments.

Like all unions, “federal law prohibits NTEU from using union dues money for political contributions.” But the Treasury Employees Political Action Committee (TEPAC) is an arm of NTEU through which union members can make voluntary contributions to financially support federal candidates for the Senate, House of Representatives and presidency.

Labor unions in general tend to be left-leaning so it should not come as a surprise that the Committee’s political contributions over the last 23 years exemplify clear favoritism for the Democratic Party. During the 2012 election cycle, for example, TEPAC contributed $547,800 to the Democratic Party and a mere $24,000 to the Republican Party.

Union members have every right to support whichever political party they please. But when such a union represents an entity that is meant to be objective, it can only compromise that integrity and facilitate political prejudice.

To sum up: NTEU member donations via TEPAC are overwhelmingly allocated to the Democratic Party. NTEU represents IRS employees.

How does it surprise anyone that IRS agents are harassing conservative groups?