Now on the Republican Con Job of the day, we go to Republican hypocrisy on full disclosure of campaign cash. As the New Republic points out, over the years the GOP has claimed that it favored letting the public know where political donations came from.
John Boehner on Meet the Press in 2007: “What we ought to do is have full disclosure of all the money that we raised and how it was spent.”
Fantastic. I totally agree. And Boehner was not alone. Last year Eric Cantor, Republican Representative of Virginia, said, “Anything that moves us back towards that notion of transparency and real-time reporting of donations and contributions I think would be a helpful move.” (Newsweek.com)
Great. Mitch McConnell, Republican Senator of Kentucky, even said, “Why would a little disclosure be better than a lot of disclosure?” (TheHill.com)
Lovely. We got a deal then, don’t we? Let’s definitely find out where the political money is coming from. What? No deal?!
Of course, now that “Citizens United Decision” has opened the floodgates to corporate money, the GOP is changing its tune. The Republicans, led by Mitch McConnell are blasting an Obama plan to require more disclosure from companies seeking government contracts. They said that it would have “a chilling effect on participation.” That’s where they get to buy the politicians, right? That’s the kind of participation that they are talking about.
McConnell even called disclosure “a cynical effort to muzzle critics of this administration and its allies in Congress.” (The Washington Post)
So Republicans supported transparency until they realized that it might reveal how much big political donors are rewarded with government cash. That’s when they realized that transparency may not be in their best interests after all.
And that awesome Republican political flip-flopping is the Con Job of the day!
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