Tag Archive | congress
Overturning Montana Law Facilitates Decline In Economic Opportunity
Although we are in the full swing of an election year and all focus is on who will win, please remember that the influence of money in politics is about something far more important than who wins the next election. Yes, in fact, there is something more important than who wins in November – the […]
Obama Responds to FEC Petition
I continue to be flabbergasted at the rationale behind funding federal enforcement agencies that do not enforce the laws. Any excuse for not enforcing existing laws is unacceptable. The hypocrisy of having laws and not enforcing them is more dangerous to a society than no rules at all. The existing campaign finance regulations are woefully […]
STOCK Act revisited by CBS 60 Minutes
Last night Steve Kroft revisited the STOCK act on 60 Minutes at CBS. The passage of this bill in April is merely a hollow action by Congress to placate the public. The fact that elected officials are not automatically held accountable to the same laws as the people is alarming. Even though the STOCK Act […]
Shareholders Get Political
All of the ruckus over political campaign contributions in the last couple of years is definitely resulting in more public awareness. Shareholders are even getting political now. A proxy advisory service, Institutional Shareholder Services, states that “Investors filed more than 100 resolutions this year asking companies to disclose what they spend on political advocacy. The […]
Earmark Pigs Are Not Flying But Breeding Oligarchy
UPDATE: The ban on earmarks by the House in 2010 is proving difficult to uphold. Apparently the ban applied to passing legislation with earmarks and did not in any way apply to existing earmarks. Representative Harold Rogers, a Republican who is now the chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, added an earmark to a 2009 […]
Most Americans think campaign money aids rich
This week, May 22-24, Reuters conducted a poll and found that seventy-five percent of Americans feel there is too much money in politics. Almost the same proportion – 76 percent – feel that the amount of money in elections has given rich people more influence than other Americans, the online survey found. “What we’re essentially […]
Campaign Finance Crisis Speech
The Campaign Legal Center represents the public interest in enforcement of campaign and media law. During this speech, Potter traces the evolution of the current campaign finance crisis and discusses an agenda to escape it if the political willpower can be mustered. The full text of the speech follows below: I am often asked how, after […]
Getting Money Out of Politics Is Not Partisan
Surprise! Not everyone has heard of the Citizens United 2010 Supreme Court decision. Research from the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press found that 54% of registered voters say they have heard about the decision that allows corporations and individuals to spend as much money as they want on political advertising as […]
JP Morgan Chase Investors Are Our Representatives
In addition to receiving campaign contributions from JP Morgan Chase, at least 38 members of Congress own shares in the bank. According to OpenSecrets.org data, 15 Democrats and 23 Republicans owned shares in JPMorgan Chase worth a total of between $2.1 million and $3.8 million in 2010. Two Senators and four House members owned at least […]
