Posted on 07/16/2012 7:15:44 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Senate Republicans blocked a bid by Democrats on Monday to require political fundraising groups to reveal their anonymous contributors who are fueling negative television advertisements ahead of the November election.
By a 51-44 party line vote, supporters of the Disclose Act of 2012 fell short of the 60 votes needed to clear a Republican procedural hurdle.
But Democrats promised to debate the bill late into the night and seek another vote on Tuesday, hoping to paint Republicans as thwarting transparency.
"This is too important an issue to let it die quietly," said Senator Jeanne Shaheen, a Democrat.
Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell called the act a waste of time and said Democrats should instead try to remedy the ailing U.S. economy.
"Think about it: we've had 41 straight months of unemployment above 8 percent," McConnell said. "But this is what they want to do."
President Barack Obama said in a statement that Republicans had a chance to "change it" but stood with corporate interests and "instead chose to block it."
"If we allow this practice to continue, special interests will have unprecedented influence over politicians," Obama said.
The bill was drafted amid an outcry that political organizations were exploiting a tax law provision allowing certain "social welfare" groups meant to educate the public to collect unlimited contributions without disclosing their donors. Backers of the legislation say the loophole must be closed.
The debate stems from a divided U.S. Supreme Court decision that opened the way for unlimited corporate and special-interest spending in elections.
The proposal defeated on Monday was a scaled-back version of a measure that was blocked by Republicans in 2010.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
So who were the five who didn’t cast a vote? Presumably there were 2 Dems and 3 Reps who did not vote.
obama will just selectively apply the law if it was passed anyway. gop can’t do certain things under the law, but dem could break it
Thanks NormsRevenge.
and the house’s chances of passing it? 0
The implication being the Republicans are running “negative” (truthful?) ads about Demonrats?
Democrats have a lot of Chutzpah to even say the word transparent
By the time the Obama’s are packed up & seeking a safe country for exile, the Webster’s dictionary will have to re-write the definition of ‘TRANSPARENCY’.
Soooo—how unhappy will the Dems be when the donations to Obama from the Middle East & Africa are revealed in detail?
Those brothers in the Gaza Strip who have been bundling for him for over 5 years will come to light?????
Meanwhile, I will attend any gathering I can & I will put CASH into the donations jar.
Oh, I am sure the language of the bill applies almost entirely to Republicans only. Union thugs and various other Dem entities would be exempt from disclosure.
Oh, I am sure the language of the bill applies almost entirely to Republicans only. Union thugs and various other Dem entities would be exempt from disclosure.
It is simply a “transparent” attempt to be able to produce names and addresses of republican donors on the web so occutard and SEIU types can camp out on their properties to “persuade” them to cease and desist. “nice family there, shame if anything happened to it”
A little bit of mildly associated vanity question here.
It’s been a while since civics and my memory is failing - If Romney wins in 2012, can someone tell me what vote totals are required to overturn a law (Obamacare) in 2013?
Are 2/3 of the House and 3/4 of the Senate required to overturn any law? Or are those totals only required to overturn a Presidential veto?
“Soooo—how unhappy will the Dems be when the donations to Obama from the Middle East & Africa are revealed in detail?”
Exactly, which is why I can’t understand voting against this bill. Kind of plays into the dims hands.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
