GOP: the Party of the Fillibuster
Link from CNN. Seriously, there should be a limit to the number of times the MINORITY party can obstruct progress via the "F" word, fillibuster. This is really getting ridiculous. Since most Americans are against the Citizens United ruling, I thought the Disclose Act (campaign finance reform) would be a "no brainer" bipartisan issue. A vote is set for tonight, despite the increasing liklihood that Republicans will collectively fillibuster this reform. Brown and Collins have both signaled that they will support a fillibuster, despite Schumer's attempt to revise it and address their concerns that unions might be at an unfair advantage. The only part I dislike is the loophole for the NRA (ironically, I'm sure that was put in to GET a few Republicans on board!) Sigh. Here we go again. The minority wins another "victory" allowing corporations to influence elections in the most UN-Democratic way and ensure that average Americans continue to get screwed by special interest money and corporate greed. Thanks for looking out for the little guy, Republicans! Enjoy those huge donations for your efforts on behalf of the rich.
The House already passed its version of the bill. Senate Democrats tried to address GOP concerns by cutting out a provision in the House bill that would allow labor unions unfettered transfers of funds from member dues between national organizations and state affiliates.
On Monday, President Barack Obama criticized Republican opposition to a Senate bill, calling it partisan gamesmanship that threatens to give special interests undue influence on U.S. elections.
"You'd think that reducing corporate and even foreign influence over our elections would not be a partisan issue," Obama told reporters in a White House appearance that was scheduled earlier in the day.
Obama accused the Republican leadership in the Senate of "using every tactic and every maneuver they can to prevent it from even coming up for an up-or-down vote."
"We can't afford these political games," Obama said, adding that "a vote to oppose these reforms is nothing less than a vote to allow" special interests and foreign interest to hold sway over U.S. elections.
Referred to as the "Disclose Act," the bill is a Democratic-led response to a Supreme Court ruling in January that struck down key provisions of campaign finance laws restricting spending by corporations, unions and independent groups.
Obama, who has criticized the Supreme Court ruling, said the bill would allow Americans to know who is spending money to try to influence election campaigns.
"This is an issue that goes to whether or not we're going to have a government that works for ordinary Americans; a government by and for the people," Obama said.
The Senate's arcane rules;
The Senate's arcane rules; no one understands them except for senators that have been seated more than one term; are the number one thing responsible for the amount of gridlock we currently have in government. One example would be on health insurance reform. The House of Representatives passed a bill which included a public option; it was immediately deleted from the Senate version because there was no way it could muster enough votes (even on a reconciliation simple majority) to pass (that was also due somewhat to corporate Dems). The Senate acts like an oligarchy, as was the case in the old Soviet Union. They are almost an independent government (not really accountable to anyone because of 6-year terms) instead of one part of a co-equal branch of government.
As for the intent of the bill itself, I hope it would go a long ways toward eliminating the stranglehold corporations have on the electoral process, and thus on the legislative process. Maybe this bill would do that, since it has drawn such fervent opposition from the GOP. I hope it's not another McCain-Feingold (P.L. 107-155) which amended the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971, and sought to downplay the influence of PACs in the electoral process. It basically succeeded in that, but did nothing to check the 527s (which, unlike the PACs, are not limited in the amount of dollars they can spend). All in all, McCain-Feingold failed, and I hope this legislation, if passed (it seems a long shot now) will succeed better.
EDIT: This is my third attempt to post on this subject; the other two went POOF into thin air. But, I don't give up!