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Heritage
Foundation..
Is it
true... you decide.
IRS,
Labor
Department Audit Businessman on Obama’s Enemies List
by Rob
Bluey
July 21,
2012
Frank
VanderSloot grew up a poor kid in rural Idaho. His father made $300 a
month.
His clothes came from the Salvation Army. Yet through determination and
hard
work — and with the help of America’s free-enterprise system — today
he’s the
successful CEO of a global supplier of wellness products.
VanderSloot’s
rags-to-riches story is not unlike other American tales of individuals
who have
benefited from the free market. In VanderSloot’s case, however, that
success
came with a price — but only when he decided a write a check to a super
PAC
that supports Mitt Romney.
On April
20, President Obama’s campaign named VanderSloot to the first
presidential
“enemies list” since the Nixon era. Eight private citizens were singled
out for
their donations to Romney. They committed no crimes, sought no
attention, and
yet they became the subject of Obama’s scorn.
VanderSloot
is now facing persecution from the federal government. Kimberly
Strassel
reveals in The Wall Street Journal that two federal agencies — the
Internal
Revenue Service and Labor Department — both launched investigations of
VanderSloot after his name appeared on Obama’s enemies list.
In a letter
dated June 21, he was informed that his tax records had been “selected
for
examination” by the Internal Revenue Service. The audit also
encompasses Mr.
VanderSloot’s wife, and not one, but two years of past filings (2008
and 2009).
Mr.
VanderSloot, who is 63 and has been working since his teens, says
neither he
nor his accountants recall his being subject to a federal tax audit
before. He
was once required to send documents on a line item inquiry into his
charitable
donations, which resulted in no changes to his taxes. But nothing
more—that is
until now, shortly after he wrote a big check to a Romney-supporting
Super PAC.
Two weeks
after receiving the IRS letter, Mr. VanderSloot received another—this
one from
the Department of Labor. He was informed it would be doing an audit of
workers
he employs on his Idaho-based cattle ranch under the federal visa
program for
temporary agriculture workers.
The H-2A
program allows tens of thousands of temporary workers in the U.S.; Mr.
VanderSloot employs precisely three. All are from Mexico and have
worked on the
VanderSloot ranch—which employs about 20 people—for five years. Two are
brothers. Mr. VanderSloot has never been audited for this, though two
years ago
his workers’ ranch homes were inspected. (The ranch was fined $8,400,
mainly
for too many “flies” and for “grease build-up” on the stove. God forbid
a
cattle ranch home has flies.)
Coincidence?
Strassel
acknowledges the investigations could be unrelated to VanderSloot’s
inclusion
on the enemies list. It reveals, however, the danger of persecuting
private
individuals for their political donations. It’s something Heritage’s
Rory
Cooper predicted would happen months ago:
Prominent
donors are often thrust into the spotlight in political campaigns, but
this
example was extraordinary and unprecedented. The writing was on the
wall: If
you give to an opposing cause, we will unleash a grassroots effort to
destroy
your personal reputation. This message delivered on behalf of the most
powerful
man in the nation has real implications. If the IRS were to audit one
of these
individuals, how could they not wonder if their political contribution
was the
root cause?
VanderSloot
knew immediately his life changed on April 20. He was initially the
subject of
hit pieces by left-wing Mother Jones and Salon’s Glenn Greenwald. That
was
followed by reports of a former Senate Democrat staffer snooping around
the
local courthouse in Idaho for his divorce records. Now two powerful
federal agencies
have come after him.
He said the
allegations made by the Obama campaign — that he was “litigious,
combative, and
a bitter foe of the gay rights movement” — are completely false. He
isn’t going
to let anyone sully his reputation — even if it means taking the fight
directly
to the most powerful man in America.
Download
the pdf from Heritage Foundation here
See the
video and read the article, plus others, at The Heritage Foundation
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