Democrats unleash the IRS and Justice on donors to their political opponents.If at first you don't succeed, get some friends in high places to shut your opponents up. That's the latest Washington power play, as Democrats and liberals attack the Chamber of Commerce and independent spending groups in an attempt to stop businesses from participating in politics.
Since the Supreme Court's January decision in Citizens United v. FEC, Democrats in Congress have been trying to pass legislation to repeal the First Amendment for business, though not for unions. Having failed on that score, they're now turning to legal and political threats. Funny how all of this outrage never surfaced when the likes of Peter Lewis of Progressive insurance and George Soros helped to make Democrats financially dominant in 2006 and 2008.
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The outrage over the Chamber is especially amusing considering the role of foreigners in U.S. labor unions. According to the Center for Competitive Politics, close to half of the unions that are members of the AFL-CIO are international. One man's corporate commingling is another's union dues.
Unions and liberal groups are hardly cash poor this year in any case. The Campaign Media Analysis Group looked at the combined spending of candidates, their parties and outside groups and found that Democrats outspent Republicans $47.3 million to $40.8 million in a recent 60-day period.
more Except that
full disclosure by unions is required by law.
This allegation has really put the right on the defensive. What are they hiding? What are they afraid of?
Updated to add this point from an earlier WSJ
article:
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The SEIU says that political dues from Canadian members are kept separate and the union asks its 300,000 U.S. political action committee contributors whether they are U.S. citizens but doesn't require proof.
Such methods are "not good enough," says Kenneth Gross, a campaign-finance lawyer at Skadden, Arps in Washington. "A union can't just solicit workers in the U.S. and hope for the best. Additional steps need to be taken to ensure that foreign citizens who do not hold green cards are not contributing," he said.
The fact is that their "unions do it too" like claim is bogus. Here this lawyer is introducing another burden of proof beyond full disclosure, this time wanting proof that people who claim they're U.S. citizens are in fact U.S. citizens?
To start, how about getting the Chamber to provide full disclosure like the unions do?
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