{"id":8395,"date":"2012-07-17T10:09:52","date_gmt":"2012-07-17T17:09:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=8395"},"modified":"2012-07-17T10:09:52","modified_gmt":"2012-07-17T17:09:52","slug":"republicans-obstruct-disclose-act","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2012\/07\/17\/republicans-obstruct-disclose-act\/","title":{"rendered":"Republicans Obstruct Disclose Act"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Disclose Act has broad support among Democrats, Independents, and even rank and file Republicans.  Simply put its foundation is the belief that, if someone is trying to buy an election, the American people have a right to know who they are.  But the small handful of billionaires, who want to plot in secret, have the support of the Republican Party.<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\"17Disclose1\"Senate Democrats on Monday lost another attempt to pass legislation forcing donors of groups that bankroll most election ads to be revealed. But Democrats, led by New York Sen. Charles Schumer, pledged to hold the Senate floor hostage and continue the debate well into the night.<\/p>\n

The DISLCOSE Act, which was dealt the same fate in the Senate in 2010, failed to overcome a key procedural vote on entirely partisan lines, 51-44. Democrats will push for another vote as early as Tuesday after holding a \u201cmidnight vigil\u201d to protest the GOP filibuster of the measure.<\/p>\n

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid was the only Democrat to vote \u201cno\u201d \u2014 a procedural move allowing him to bring it up again. Four Republicans and one Democrat did not vote on the bill, which would require unions, nonprofits and corporate interest groups that spend $10,000 or more during an election cycle to disclose donors who give $10,000 or more<\/strong>\u2026 [emphasis added<\/em>]<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Inserted from <Politico<\/a>><\/p>\n

Graphic credit: Nancy\/C2NN<\/a><\/font><\/p>\n

Regulatory legislation like this is so needed, because Republicans will do anything to win, as the following crime illustrates.<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\"17Disclose2\"In early 2010, a new organization called the Commission on Hope, Growth and Opportunity<\/a> filed for nonprofit, tax-exempt status, telling the Internal Revenue Service it was not going to spend any money on campaigns. <\/p>\n

Weeks later, tax-exempt status in hand as well as a single $4 million donation from an anonymous benefactor, the group kicked off a multimillion-dollar campaign against 11 Democratic candidates, declining to report any of its political spending to the Federal Election Commission, maintaining to the I.R.S. that it did not do any political spending at all, and failing to register as a political committee required to disclose the names of its donors. Then, faced with multiple election commission and I.R.S. complaints, the group went out of business. <\/p>\n

To Democrats and some campaign finance watchdogs eager to force more transparency in spending by independent groups, Hope, Growth and Opportunity stands out as the kind of \u201cpop-up\u201d organization that operates in virtual secrecy, with legal impunity\u2026 <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Inserted from <NY Times<\/a>><\/p>\n

Graphic credit: The Examiner<\/a><\/font><\/p>\n

Of course, Republicans are wasting no time taking advantage.<\/font><\/p>\n

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\"17Disclose3\"One Republican group has reserved $6 million in television advertising time for the fall election season to help more than a dozen House GOP candidates, and about half the money will come from the nonprofit side of the organization that is not required to disclose its donors<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The Congressional Leadership Fund and its nonprofit affiliate, the American Action Network, reserved the ad time in seven key media markets \u2014 which will also be likely battlegrounds for the presidential campaign \u2014 as a down payment on a fall campaign to promote House Republicans.<\/p>\n

The move comes as congressional Democrats are stepping up their criticism of nonprofit organizations that shield their donors and that are playing an increasingly prominent role in House and Senate races\u2026<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Inserted from <Washington Post<\/a>><\/p>\n

Graphic credit: Salon<\/a><\/font><\/p>\n

Rachel Maddow covered this story in two segments. In the first, she provided background on 1% mega-donors.<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/embed><\/object><\/p>\n

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news<\/a>, world news<\/a>, and news about the economy<\/a><\/p>\n

In the second, she interviewed John Tester (DINO-MT).<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/embed><\/object><\/p>\n

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news<\/a>, world news<\/a>, and news about the economy<\/a><\/p>\n

I don’t buy Tester’s point. Democrats are doing this for show, with good reason, and should come clean about it. We must make Republicans unanimous support for a few billionaires over everyone else an albatross to hang on Republican necks at every opportunity.  Keep the votes coming!<\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Disclose Act has broad support among Democrats, Independents, and even rank and file Republicans.  Simply put its foundation is the belief that, if someone is trying to buy an election, the American people have a right to know who they are.  But the small handful of billionaires, who want to plot in secret, have […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8395","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","category-5-id","post-seq-1","post-parity-odd","meta-position-corners","fix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8395","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8395"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8395\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8395"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8395"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8395"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}