Schweizer: ‘The IRS Ought to Be All Over’ the NEA

On Wednesday’s broadcast of the Fox News Channel’s “Jesse Watters Primetime,” Breitbart News senior contributor and Government Accountability Institute president Peter Schweizer discussed a report by the Government Accountability Institute on spending by the National Education Association (NEA) and argued that “The IRS ought to be all over” the organization and examining their nonprofit tax-exempt status.

Schweizer said, “I mean, look, we’ve known for a long time, for decades, that the teachers’ unions tend to be left of center. But what’s happened is they’ve become more and more political and less interested in actually doing what their stated purpose is, which is collective bargaining for teachers. … I think it’s time for there to be accountability. Members need to start paying attention to what the leadership is actually spending the money on.”

He added, “There needs to be an audit. And let’s make clear, Jesse, look, the NEA, for example, is a nonprofit like the Government Accountability Institute. When you form a nonprofit, you state what your mission purpose is. That’s the reason you’re [given] tax-exempt status, for example. So, the Government Accountability Institute, I couldn’t decide tomorrow to just do horticulture work for poor people in Peru. That’s not part of our mission purpose. The NEA’s mission purpose…is, they say, collective bargaining for teachers and promoting the good side of public education in America. Well, that’s their mission purpose. What they’re spending their money on has nothing to do with the mission purpose. The IRS ought to be all over this from the standpoint of their nonprofit tax-exempt status, but I’m not holding my breath that they’re going to do so.”

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