The Internal Revenue code includes 501C, which is designed to give non profit organizations an exemption from federal income tax, with the non profit organizations to be engaged in “social welfare”.
It is NOT designed to give protection from income tax to organizations engaged in politics, but that is exactly what has been going on, allowing left wing and right wing groups to be protected from taxation, while engaged in political activities, which was NOT a purpose of the IRS regulations.
In so doing, the right wing groups have now mounted an attack on the IRS itself, due to the activities of IRS bureaucrats in Cincinnati, and this is exactly what the Tea Party groups want—to destroy the ability to tax, and transform the nation’s future to an extremist agenda, with ultimate aim of destroying the New Deal and Great Society!
If their attack on the IRS is successful long term, it undermines the ability of the nation to deal with its domestic and foreign challenges, so this is not a light matter in any sense! It is an issue of the long term survival of the ability of the national government to do its job!