Senate Republicans Filibuster DISCLOSE Act... To Death-- While House Democrats Muscle Through Aid For Small Businesses In The Face Of GOP Obstruction

Boehner tries to kill tax relief bill for small business; fails

In a strict party-line vote yesterday-- every Democrat voting for cloture to shut down the filibuster, every Republican voting to continue the filibuster (yes, the Maine girls too)-- the Senate killed S.3628, the DISCLOSE ACT for this year. The summary of the bill, in part:

Democracy is Strengthened by Casting Light on Spending in Elections Act or the DISCLOSE Act-- Amends the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 (FECA) to prohibit: (1) independent expenditures and payments for electioneering communications by government contractors if the value of the contract is at least $10 million; and (2) recipients of assistance under the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) of the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 (EESA) from making any contribution to any political party, committee, or candidate for public office, or to any person for any political purpose or use, or from making any independent expenditure or disbursing any funds for an electioneering communication.

Applies the ban on contributions and expenditures by foreign nationals to foreign-controlled domestic corporations.

Requires the highest ranking official of a corporation, before making any contribution, donation, expenditure, independent expenditure, or disbursement for an electioneering communication in connection with a federal election, to file a certification with the Federal Election Commission (FEC), if this has not been done already, that the corporation is not prohibited from carrying out such activity.

President Obama says he's disappointed by the Republicans' knee-jerk obstructionism. Have Jim Messina and Rahm Emanuel been hiding that from him for the past couple years? “I am deeply disappointed by the unanimous Republican blockade in the Senate of the DISCLOSE Act, a critical piece of legislation that would control the flood of special interest money into our elections. Today’s decision by a partisan minority to block this legislation is a victory for special interests and U.S. corporations-- including foreign-controlled ones-- who are now allowed to spend unlimited money to fill our airwaves, mailboxes and phone lines right up until Election Day. And it comes at the expense of the American people, who no longer have the right to know who is financing these ads in an attempt to influence an election for their preferred candidate. Wall Street, the insurance lobby, oil companies and other special interests are now one step closer to taking Congress back and returning to the days when lobbyists wrote the laws. But despite today’s setback, I will continue fighting to ensure that our democracy stays where it belongs-- in the hands of the American people.” 

On the other hand, President Obama was elated that the final version of his bill to aid small businesses (real small business, not the GOP version of small business) passed the House 237-187. Only one Republican, Walter Jones of North Carolina abandoned Boehner, the GOP leader famous for always being in bed with lobbyists-- and now infamous for being in bed with one particular lobbyist-- to cross the aisle and vote in favor of tax breaks and credit easing for small businesses. Every other Republican voted NO, along with 13 of the mangy old corporate-whore Blue Dogs types: Marion Berry (Blue Dog-AR), Allen Boyd (Blue Dog-FL), Travis Childers (Blue Dog-MS), Vic DeFazio (D-OR; don't ask me... I have no idea), Chet Edwards (D-TX; bad polling today), Stephanie Herseth Sandlin (Blue Dog-SD), Harry Mitchell (Blue Dog-AZ), Collin Peterson (Blue Dog-MN), Jared Polis (D-CO; see DeFazio above), Heath Shuler (Blue Dog-NC), Gene Taylor (Blue Dog-MS) and Dina Titus (D-NV; bad polling today and everyday), and, inexplicably Nydia Velázquez (D-NY). This time President Obama was more upbeat in his comments and promised to sign the bill on Monday:

The small business jobs bill passed today will help provide loans and cut taxes for millions of small business owners without adding a dime to our nation’s deficit. After months of partisan obstruction and needless delay, I’m grateful that Democrats and a few Republicans came together to support this common-sense plan to put Americans back to work.