September, 23 2010, 04:14pm EDT
Key Leaders and Experts: Filibustering Transparency Is a Win for Corporate Special Interests
Today’s DISCLOSE Act Filibuster Highlights How Special Interests Win Big with Unprecedented Levels of Obstructionism
WASHINGTON
On the heels of a press call highlighting unprecedented filibuster abuse and a Senate Rules Committee hearing on the same topic, today's filibuster of the DISCLOSE Act once more demonstrates how unprecedented obstructionism is damaging the democratic process. Today's DISCLOSE Act filibuster marks the 119th filibuster of this Congress, on a bill that would have required organizations involved in political campaigning to disclose the identity of large donors.
"It is an insult to democracy that corporations are being allowed to secretly spend millions and millions of dollars to elect Republicans who will do their bidding, " said Michael Keegan, President of People for the American Way. "And it's even more shameful that Republicans are continuing to abuse filibusters in order to block even Senate debate on proposals for transparency and disclosure."
One of the primary concerns about the unprecedented abuse of the filibuster in recent years is that it allows Senators to hold a bill or nomination hostage to extort a ransom, usually to advance a pet project back home or to help a favored corporate special interest. The irony that some find in today's DISCLOSE Act filibuster is that the aim of the bill was to enhance transparency and minimize the influence of powerful special interests - yet was derailed by an undemocratic abuse of loopholes in Senate rules that favors powerful special interests.
"This is the moment that senators must stand up and show their constituents how they feel about transparency, and whether they truly believe that voters should know who is paying for what in campaigns," said Bob Edgar, President of Common Cause. "Without passage of this bill, voters will be in the dark during the mid-term elections. What's particularly ludicrous is using the filibuster--the most undemocratic maneuver--on a transparency bill."
The number of filibusters has ballooned in recent years. There is now an average of 70 filibusters per year, as opposed to approximately one per year through 1970. Additionally, it's not just the unprecedented usage of filibusters, but the threat of the filibuster and the knowledge that most any vote in the Senate will require 60 votes that is helping to derail the democratic process.
"Filibusters aren't about democracy," said Carl Pope, Executive Chairman of the Sierra Club on the press call Tuesday. "They're about special interests flexing their power."
Just yesterday, Senator Schumer (D-NY) convened the fifth of six Senate Rules Committee hearings to address the unprecedented levels of filibuster abuse in the current Congress.
For more information, please visit www.democracyrules.us
Common Cause is a nonpartisan, grassroots organization dedicated to upholding the core values of American democracy. We work to create open, honest, and accountable government that serves the public interest; promote equal rights, opportunity, and representation for all; and empower all people to make their voices heard in the political process.
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Sanders Says 'Political Movement,' Not Murder, Is the Path to Medicare for All
"Killing people is not the way we're going to reform our healthcare system," he said. "The way we're going to reform our healthcare system is having people come together."
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Addressing the assassination of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson and conversations it has sparked about the country's for-profit system, longtime Medicare for All advocate Sen. Bernie Sanders on Wednesday condemned the murder and stressed that getting to universal coverage will require a movement challenging corporate money in politics.
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"What you're seeing, the outpouring of anger at the insurance companies, is a reflection of how people feel about the current healthcare system."
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"Killing people is not the way we're going to reform our healthcare system," Sanders added. "The way we're going to reform our healthcare system is having people come together and understanding that it is the right of every American to be able to walk into a doctor's office when they need to and not have to take out their wallet."
"The way we're going to bring about the kind of fundamental changes we need in healthcare is, in fact, by a political movement which understands the government has got to represent all of us, not just the 1%," the senator told Jacobin.
The 83-year-old Vermonter, who was just reelected to what he says is likely his last six-year term, is an Independent but caucuses with Democrats and sought their presidential nomination in 2016 and 2020. He has urged the Democratic Party to recognize why some working-class voters have abandoned it since Republicans won the White House and both chambers of Congress last month. A refusal to take on insurance and drug companies and overhaul the healthcare system, he argues, is one reason.
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In addition to highlighting Sanders' interview on social media, Congressman Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) pointed out to Business Insider on Wednesday that "you've got thousands of people that are sharing their stories of frustration" in the wake of Thompson's death.
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Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.)—a co-sponsor of Sanders' Medicare for All Act—similarly toldHuffPost in a Tuesday interview, "The visceral response from people across this country who feel cheated, ripped off, and threatened by the vile practices of their insurance companies should be a warning to everyone in the healthcare system."
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Reporters Without Borders' (RSF) 2024 roundup, which was published Thursday, found that at least 54 journalists were killed on the job or in connection with their work this year, and 18 of them were killed by Israeli armed forces (16 in Palestine, and two in Lebanon).
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Under the Robinson-Patman Act, it is generally illegal for sellers to engage in price discrimination that harms competition by charging higher prices to disfavored retailers that purchase similar goods. The FTC's case filed today seeks to ensure that businesses of all sizes compete on a level playing field with equivalent access to discounts and rebates, which means increased consumer choice and the ability to pass on lower prices to consumers shopping across independent retailers.
"When local businesses get squeezed because of unfair pricing practices that favor large chains, Americans see fewer choices and pay higher prices—and communities suffer," Khan said in a statement. "The law says that businesses of all sizes should be able to compete on a level playing field. Enforcers have ignored this mandate from Congress for decades, but the FTC's action today will help protect fair competition, lower prices, and restore the rule of law."
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