-By Don Hamel
May 22, 2012- The Tea Party came into this world the same way a baby does; screaming and crying. Mainly they screamed and cried about the deficit, taxes and fiscal responsibility. It turns out, when it comes to spending, they’re still babes in the woods. Their latest IRS filing shows the Tea Party Patriots took in more than $12 million in fundraising, so how did only $3.4 million of that go to their actual ‘mission’ programs?
Mother Jones obtained the Tea Party Patriots’ full IRS filing, and it’s an abject lesson in how fools and their money part. The most damning evidence is found on page 20, shown here:
Here you find MDS Communications, a telemarketing firm that took in on behalf of the TPP $680,581.00 , a tidy sum. Sadly for the cause, they charged $665,581 for their services, leaving the fiscally hawkish TPP, $15k. Then there’s the $1.4 million that was given to the Richard Norman Company, for “fundraising counsel,” a figure made more remarkable when you learn Richard Norman, is now TPP’s national finance chair.
You’d think he could have given them a discount.