Significance of today’s release of Project Veritas videos and charity regulators

The Daily Caller broke the story about James O’Keefe’s Project Veritas latest sting. This one shows state Medicaid officials not only aiding scofflaws, but I imagine breaking some laws themselves.

My mantra about charity regulators is that they are the biggest violators of the laws that govern charitable solicitation.  They are unaccountable, and that fosters their lawbreaking.  They exert tremendous amounts of control over private philanthropy and the rights of nonprofit organizations.  It seems, though, that the bigger problem of corruption involves taxpayer money being doled out to charities.  How many government officials have been caught in recent years diverting taxpayer money for their personal benefit?  How many politicians have been involved in these scams?  The bigger question may be, how many have not been caught?

The real issue is that government isn’t nearly as benevolent as it claims to be.  As to charity regulators, we need to be more circumspect about what they do and why they do it.  They need to be challenged more often.

Charity regulators, particularly their umbrella group the National Association of State Charitable Officials (NASCO), fail to provide information about their operations and costs.  They bash their critics, and even threaten them.

The nonprofit sector should push for audits of charity regulators.  Maybe they need to be “stung” themselves.  In the mean time, keep an eye on the regulators.  Government itself doesn’t seem to be keeping an eye on them.