Free Republic

Free Speech: The IRS scandal is not only not over but is getting worse, with a call by New York's senior senator for the already-politicized agency to use its power to tax to destroy the conservative grass-roots movement. Arguing that the Supreme Court's 2010 Citizens United decision allowed Tea Party groups to "funnel millions of undisclosed dollars into campaigns with ads that distort the truth and attack government," Charles Schumer wants the IRS and other government agencies to take on the Tea Party through their administrative powers. "It is clear that we will not pass anything legislatively as long as...

Mitch McConnell delivered a speech today at the American Enterprise Institute to officially signal that the IRS scandal has entered its post-fact phase. When the IRS first revealed that its Cincinnati office had attempted to enforce its nonprofit laws using a search function that disproportionately impacted conservatives, Republicans were certain it must have come from the White House. They were going to follow the facts. But all of the facts point in the same direction, which is that the Obama administration had nothing to do with it at all. That was the conclusion of the agency’s inspector-general report, as well...

Scandal: Senate Democrats, including supporters of the Disclose Act, provided the names of groups they wanted targeted in a taxpayer-funded witch hunt overseen by an IRS employee and Obama campaign donor. Using the Citizens United case as a pretext, retiring Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., on July 27, 2012, wrote IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman to investigate 12 conservative groups he accused of violating their tax-exempt status and engaging in coordinated political activity. The groups Levin asked to be targeted for special scrutiny were Crossroads Grassroots Policy Strategies, Priorities U.S.A., Americans Elect, American Action Network, Americans for Prosperity, American Future Fund, Americans...

THE PRESIDENT:  Good afternoon, everybody.  Tomorrow there’s going to be a very important vote in the Senate about how much influence special interests should have over our democracy.  Because of the Supreme Court’s decision earlier this year in the Citizens United case, big corporations –- even foreign-controlled ones –- are now allowed to spend unlimited amounts of money on American elections.  They can buy millions of dollars worth of TV ads –- and worst of all, they don’t even have to reveal who’s actually paying for the ads.  Instead, a group can hide behind a name like “Citizens for a...

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....

There are a lot of people who have been saying a lot of things about the way elections are run in the United States ever since the Supreme Court opened up new avenues of campaign spending in the Citizens United case. This wasn't always the case. Back in 2008 nary a word was heard when Barack Obama announced he would be the first general election candidate to refuse public funding for his presidential campaign, a good government safeguard in place since Watergate. If that were not bad enough, none of the so-called campaign watchdog groups showed any interest in the...

May 22, 2012 U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid S-221 The Capitol Washington, D.C. 20510 U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell S-230 The Capitol Washington, D.C. 20510 Dear Senators Reid and McConnell, I am writing to express the National Rifle Association's strong opposition to S. 2219, the DISCLOSE Act. In its landmark Citizens United decision, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the federal ban on certain political speech by nonprofit membership associations, including the National Rifle Association, in an effort to mischaracterize that ruling as something other than a vindication of the free speech and associational rights of millions of...

Washington (CNSNews.com) – Two Senate Democrats have joined Republicans in questioning President Barack Obama’s planned executive order to require that all federal contractors disclose their political contributions to independent groups– expressing fear it would politicize the contracting process. “We are concerned that requiring businesses to disclose their political activity when making an offer risks injecting politics into the contracting process,” said a letter from Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee Chairman Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.), the committee’s ranking member Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), and Sens. Claire McCaskill and Rob Portman (R-Ohio.). “Federal contracting law already precludes the consideration of...

A draft executive order from the White House that would force government contractors to disclose their political contributions is drawing consternation from K Street. Lobbyists sees the latest move by the Obama administration as another attempt to limit their influence in Washington, and it follows a series of policies signed off by the president that have targeted them. Howard Marlowe, president of the American League of Lobbyists, told The Hill that the draft order that has been circulated around Washington would be “bad public policy.” “This is really bad public policy to be asking people to state what contributions they...

Washington (CNSNews.com) – In what the White House calls a push for transparency, a pending executive order would require companies doing business with the federal government to disclose political contributions to independent groups, but would not place the same requirement on public employee unions or federal grant recipients that typically donate to Democrats. Entitled the “Disclosure of Political Spending By Government Contractors,” the order would implement parts of the DISCLOSE Act, which failed to get through Congress last year. The legislation sought to restrict campaign speech after the landmark Citizens United vs. Federal Elections Commission U.S. Supreme Court ruling that...

In its Citizens United ruling, the Supreme Court held that Americans do not forfeit their First Amendment rights when they join together to form businesses. This hardly remarkable conclusion produced howls of indignation among Democrats, who summarily denounced both the justices and the “corporations,” about which they are inclined to whisper darkly. Now the president is contemplating the imposition of free-speech restrictions through executive fiat. Democrats’ main response to Citizens United was the DISCLOSE Act (if you must know and can stomach it, that’s the Democracy Is Strengthened by Casting Light On Spending in Elections Act) which, among other things,...

Washington (CNSNews.com) – In what the White House calls a push for transparency, a pending executive order would require companies doing business with the federal government to disclose political contributions to independent groups, but would not place the same requirement on public employee unions or federal grant recipients that typically donate to Democrats. Entitled the “Disclosure of Political Spending By Government Contractors,” the order would implement parts of the DISCLOSE Act, which failed to get through Congress last year. The legislation sought to restrict campaign speech after the landmark Citizens United vs. Federal Elections Commission U.S. Supreme Court ruling...

Says our source: "They lost in the Supreme Court, they lost in Congress, they lost at the FEC, so now the president is just going to do it by edict." An impeccable source has provided me with a copy of a draft Executive Order pdf that the White House is apparently circulating for comments from several government agencies. Titled “Disclosure of Political Spending By Government Contractors,” it appears to be an attempt by the Obama administration to implement — by executive fiat — portions of the DISCLOSE Act. This was the bill introduced last year by Sen. Chuck Schumer and...

Here we go again.  The same vicious cycle seems to repeat itself ad nauseum.  We become all excited about the prospects of picking up Senate seats during the election.  Then, within a few days these RINOs return to their old ways.  The Hill is reporting that Mark Kirk is considering whether to vote with the Democrats and support the unconstitutional Disclose Act.  Even though he voted against this particular bill while he was in the House, he is showing willingness to sell himself out to liberal special interest groups that are pressuring RINOs to support this legislation.  Here is what...

Senate Republicans on Thursday stood fast in blocking legislation requiring special interest groups running campaign ads to identify their donors.....The 59-39 vote fell one short of the 60 needed to advance the legislation. Two Republicans didn't vote. ...

They won’t take no for an answer. So we have to give them both barrels again. On July 27, the Senate voted down the Democrats’ union-friendly, loophole-ridden, Orwellian-titled DISCLOSE Act. The bogus campaign finance reform bill was, as Sen. Mitch McConnell put it, a “transparent attempt to rig fall elections” that was written “behind closed doors” with help from lobbyists and riddled with political carve-outs for labor and other deep-pocketed organizations. Now, the hide-and-seek hypocrites on the Hill have resurrected their union pay-off. Priorities, you know. Hapless Harry Reid is leading the charge:

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid just scheduled a vote on the DISCLOSE Act, which would force donors to publish their involvement in political ad campaigns, for Thursday. Why not tomorrow, you might ask? Because there are no votes in the Senate scheduled for tomorrow. And that may be, in part, because there's something else going on tomorrow: A big New York fundraiser for the Senate Democrats. "I would be honored if you would join me for a very special reception with President Barack Obama on Wednesday, September 22, 2010 in New York. We have a limited numbers of tickets available...

Democrats will look to bring up a stalled campaign finance reform bill for another key procedural vote on Thursday. Jim Manley, a top spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said on Twitter the Senate would debate the Disclose Act on Wednesday, with an eye toward holding a vote on Thursday. The legislation, crafted by Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), looks to respond to a Supreme Court ruling earlier this year loosening restrictions on corporate and labor spending in elections. While the legislation enjoys some bipartisan support in the House, Senate Republicans have complained that the bill is a partisan...

You know when a politician starts a sen tence with "frankly," he's about to lie to your face. The same principle applies to campaign-finance legislation dubbed the "DISCLOSE Act." The voter's instinctive reaction should be: What are they trying to hide now? Drafted out of public view and rammed through Congress after bypassing committee hearings, this bum bill would have been better named the CLOSED-DOOR Act. At a Rose Garden press conference on Monday, President Obama decried the influence of "shadow groups" on elections and urged the Senate to pass the Sen. Chuck Schumer-sponsored "reform." But the loophole-ridden package exempts...

Grouped By Vote Position Did Reid of Nevada make a senile vote or a desparate vote because of the November election???YEAs ---57 Akaka (D-HI) Baucus (D-MT) Bayh (D-IN) Begich (D-AK) Bennet (D-CO) Bingaman (D-NM) Boxer (D-CA) Brown (D-OH) Burris (D-IL) Cantwell (D-WA) Cardin (D-MD) Carper (D-DE) Casey (D-PA) Conrad (D-ND) Dodd (D-CT) Dorgan (D-ND) Durbin (D-IL) Feingold (D-WI) Feinstein (D-CA) Franken (D-MN) Gillibrand (D-NY) Goodwin (D-WV) Hagan (D-NC) Harkin (D-IA) Inouye (D-HI) Johnson (D-SD) Kaufman (D-DE) Kerry (D-MA) Klobuchar (D-MN) Kohl (D-WI) Landrieu (D-LA) Lautenberg (D-NJ) Leahy (D-VT) Levin (D-MI) Lincoln (D-AR) McCaskill (D-MO) Menendez (D-NJ) Merkley (D-OR) Mikulski (D-MD)...