SC Tea Party Founder: 'Outrage' to Suggest Taxpayers Subsidizing Group

A founder of a South Carolina Tea Party whose group was targeted by the IRS told representatives on the House Ways and Means Committee that she was “outraged” Democrats were implying taxpayers were subsidizing her organization. 

In testimony before the Committee, Diane Belsom of the Laurens County Tea Party, said people who donate to her group were not donating amounts that were large enough to be tax deductible. She said it was an “outrage” that Democrats were implying “we are taking money from starving children to fund our groups.”

“We are not getting any money from the taxpayers,” she declared.

To the contrary, she said all that groups like hers were asking is that if people make small contributions or pay dues that their organizations that they are not subjected to taxes on those contributions or dues. She also noted that money had already been taxed when the people making the contributions first earned it.