Tax-financed federal programs are used to subsidize the lobbying and political activities of special-interest groups. The programs give grants or contracts to non-governmental groups that are not nonpolitical charities. Under current federal law, most groups receiving federal funds -- or using paid volunteers funded by taxpayers -- are not banned from political activities.

Some examples of the activities by groups that get government funds include:

• In 1994, a San Francisco AmeriCorps "Summer of Safety" program organized 40 groups to rally against a "three strikes" provision of a state crime bill.

• In 1995, the AmeriCorps-funded Cole Coalition sent paid volunteers to hand out political fliers attacking a candidate in an election campaign.

• The Legal Services Corporation funnels funds to 323 private contractors nationwide which have filed advocacy lawsuits for prisoners and illegal aliens and even for drug dealers fighting eviction from public housing.

• Planned Parenthood and its affiliates, the principal contractors of Title X family planning, actively lobby for abortion funding.

• In 1995, Market Promotion Program grantees -- business groups that market their products overseas -- lobbied against agricultural reform legislation.

• The National Endowment for the Humanities, as part of its "National Conversation" project, funds discussion materials on practicing politics, socioeconomic equality and "controversial ideas and speech in a diverse society."

The "top ten" federal programs that actively subsidize political and lobbying activity cost federal taxpayers an estimated $1.8 billion in fiscal year 1995.

Source: Charles P. Griffin, "Top Ten Political Slush Funds," Backgrounder No. 1069, March 4, 1996, Heritage Foundation, 214 Massachusetts Avenue, NE, Washington, DC 20002, (202) 546-4400.

• The National Council of Senior Citizens spent part of its $71 million in government moneys to erect a paper-mache Trojan Horse to protest GOP efforts to reduce the growth of Medicare.
  
  
• Part of the $22 million in grants received by the American Bar Association went to defend flag burning.
  
  
• The Child Welfare League used part of its $250,000 grant for an advertising campaign to increase welfare spending.
  
  
• Some of the $1 million each received by the AFL-CIO and the Teamsters went to oppose Medicare reforms.
  
  
• The American Association of Retired Persons, which gets $24 million, engages in partisan political campaigns to defeat politicians who oppose their agenda.

So what, observers ask, are they doing playing politics?

• They have contributed more than $100,000 to an ad campaign to attack presidential candidate Steve Forbes' flat tax plan.

• The money was transferred to an organization called the Coalition to Preserve Home Ownership -- whose other members are the National Association of Realtors and the National Association of Home Builders.

• The Coalition has so far spent more than $270,000 for what some critics call "hysterical" commercials in Iowa and New Hampshire attacking the flat tax because it would eliminate the tax deductibility of home mortgage interest payments. According to a Heritage Foundation paper the ads weren't even accurate. For example, they over-estimated by 30 percent the average marginal tax rate that homeowners face. Observers are also calling attention to other questionable "charitable donations."

• In 1994, FNMA and FHLMC gave more than $10.5 million to such public policy and advocacy organizations as the Brookings Institution, the Urban Institute and the Center for Policy Alternatives.

• They also gave nearly $240,000 to the Children's Defense Fund -- a favorite of first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Many are questioning the propriety of such contributions by even quasi-governmental institutions.

Source: Editorial, "Public funds, Private Agendas," Investor's Business Daily, February 23, 1996.