{"id":205555,"date":"2019-03-07T01:18:47","date_gmt":"2019-03-07T06:18:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=205555"},"modified":"2025-01-18T01:38:13","modified_gmt":"2025-01-18T06:38:13","slug":"democrats-flex-power-by-taking-aim-at-money-in-politics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2019\/03\/07\/democrats-flex-power-by-taking-aim-at-money-in-politics\/","title":{"rendered":"Democrats flex power by taking aim at money in politics"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
\u201cThe public is smart enough to know that where you get your money, that’s where you get your marching orders,\u201d said Rep. Paul Sarbanes, a Maryland Democrat who is the bill’s main author. (File Photo by Sarbanes\/Website via Wikimedia Commons, Public Domain<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

WASHINGTON — Flexing their new majority, Democrats are moving to push through the House a comprehensive elections and ethics reform package they say will reduce the role of big money in politics, ensure fair elections and restore ethics and integrity to Washington.<\/p>\n

The legislation, called H.R. 1 to signify its importance, would make it easier to register and vote, tighten election security and require presidential candidates to disclose their tax returns.<\/p>\n

The sweeping, 570-page bill also would make Election Day a holiday for federal workers and require \u201cdark money\u201d political groups to make their donors public. And it would create a public financing system for congressional campaigns that Democrats say will cut down on corruption and reduce the power of lobbyists and other special interests.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe public is smart enough to know that where you get your money, that’s where you get your marching orders,\u201d said Rep. Paul Sarbanes, a Maryland Democrat who is the bill’s main author.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe public is saying, ‘Build a system of financing campaigns that we own and we’re in charge of,’ not the insiders and the lobbyists,\u201d Sarbanes said in an interview. \u201cWe want to set it up so the public gives us our marching orders.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lawmakers began debate on the bill Wednesday, with passage expected Friday.<\/p>\n

Republicans call the bill a thinly disguised power grab that would expand government and use billions in taxpayer money to pay for congressional campaigns.<\/p>\n

buy zanaflex online https:\/\/belugasp.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/png\/zanaflex.html<\/a> no prescription pharmacy <\/div>\n

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has pronounced the measure dead on arrival in the Senate, while the White House says President Donald Trump would veto it if it ever reached his desk.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a terrible bill,\u201d said Rep. Rodney Davis of Illinois, the top Republican on the House Administration Committee. \u201cWho in the world is asking for taxpayer dollars to go into congressional campaigns? That’s what Democrats are trying to hide in this bill.\u201d<\/p>\n

Democrats deny that and say money for political campaigns would come from a surcharge on federal settlements made with banks and corporations that run afoul of the law.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of interests that pay for campaigns now are the same ones that lean on the policy-making machine in Washington,\u201d Sarbanes said.<\/p>\n

buy synthroid online https:\/\/herwellnesshealthcenter.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/png\/synthroid.html<\/a> no prescription pharmacy <\/div>\n

\u201cIf they do something wrong, then that’s the perfect place to go for money to empower everyday Americans to construct a new system that gets out from under their influence.\u201d<\/p>\n

This bill allows \u201ceveryday Americans to become power brokers\u201d with small contributions of $50 or $75 that will be matched at a 6-to-1 rate by the government, he said.<\/p>\n

Republicans warn that the price tag could run into the billions and say the legislation amounts to a federal takeover of elections.<\/p>\n

The bill would create automatic national voter registration while expanding access to early and online registration. It also prohibits voter roll purges like those seen in Georgia, Ohio and other states, restores voting rights for ex-prisoners and increases federal support for state voter systems, including paper ballots to prevent fraud.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis new House Democrat majority’s top priority is apparently assigning themselves an unprecedented level of control over how they get elected to Washington, D.C., along with … what American citizens are allowed to say about it,\u201d said McConnell.<\/p>\n

The Kentucky Republican, a longtime foe of public financing, mocked the bill as the \u201cDemocrat Politician Protection Act\u201d and said Democrats were \u201cintent on fixing our elections, even though they aren’t broken.\u201d<\/p>\n

Among the flaws in the bill, McConnell said, is that the disclosure requirements for political donations would curb Americans’ First Amendment rights by making their private information public.<\/p>\n

McConnell found an unlikely ally in the American Civil Liberties Union, which warned in a letter to lawmakers that the bill’s disclosure requirements could harm public discourse \u201cby silencing necessary voices that would otherwise speak out about the public issues of the day.<\/p>\n

buy valtrex online https:\/\/belugasp.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/png\/valtrex.html<\/a> no prescription pharmacy <\/div>\n

\u201d<\/p>\n

Fred Wertheimer, president of the advocacy group Democracy 21, called those concerns overstated, saying the bill takes needed steps toward accountability and transparency. Wertheimer called the bill \u201chistoric legislation\u201d that would put in place a host of reforms that would begin to \u201cfix a broken political system and a corrupt campaign finance mechanism\u201d that threatens our democracy.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe American people truly believe the system in Washington, D.C., is rigged against them and they’re right,\u201d he said, adding that the bill would \u201cend the use of political money to benefit funders at the expense of ordinary Americans.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Senate action is unlikely, Democratic Sen. Tom Udall of New Mexico is expected to propose a companion bill next week. The bill has drawn favourable responses from all six senators seeking the Democratic nomination for president, a fact Sarbanes said highlights its importance even if it never reaches the Senate floor.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis has an opportunity to become the defining brand of the Democratic Party,\u201d he said. \u201cWe are the party that stands for reform, we are the ones fighting to protect democracy and end corruption. That’s a message we can lean on\u201d in 2020.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON — Flexing their new majority, Democrats are moving to push through the House a comprehensive elections and ethics reform …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":205557,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-205555","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-news-w","mauthors-matthew-daly","mauthors-the-associated-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205555","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=205555"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205555\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":285172,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205555\/revisions\/285172"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/205557"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=205555"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=205555"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=205555"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}