Posts Tagged ‘obama’

December16

Money and Democracy Update: Obama rakes in business cash, momentum builds to Citizens United anniversary

By: Angela Bradbery

Stunning Statistics of the Week:

  • $5.6 million: Amount President Barack Obama has raised from business executives this year
  • $5.2 million: Amount GOP presidential contender Mitt Romney has raised from business executives this year
  • $272,000: Amount GOP presidential contender Next Gingrich has raised from business executives this year

The beat goes on …
This week, more than 150 people throughout the country held organizing meetings to build for nationwide days of protests in January surrounding the two-year anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission ruling. In that decision, handed down on Jan. 21, 2010, the court said that corporations can spend unlimited amounts to influence elections. Next month’s organizing parties will be the week of Jan. 9. Sign up to host an event in your community on January 21 and help build momentum to pass a constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United. Or, join or host a house party!

30 corporations spent more on lobbying than taxes
This will make your blood boil: Thirty large corporations analyzed by Public Campaign paid more to lobby Congress than they paid in federal income taxes between 2008 and 2010, according to a new report. What’s more, those companies received tax rebates totaling nearly $11 billion.

FEC deadlocks on disclosure rules
In its last meeting of the year, the Federal Election Commission (FEC) this week deadlocked 3-3 over new rules that would tell the public where the big money for political advertising comes from. The law requires disclosure of the names of donors who give more than $200 to support such “independent expenditures,” but FEC regulations have made the disclosure requirement meaningless by limiting it to donors who earmark their contributions to support specific ad buys, which virtually no donors actually do. Thus, many groups that make huge independent expenditures now report none of their donors.

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Posted in: Campaign Finance, Money & Democracy Update0 comments

May6

Money and Democracy Update: Good government groups call on Obama to sign disclosure executive order, condemn left’s money-making machine

By: Dorry Samuels

"Public Citizen Money and Democracy Update"Stunning Statistics of the Week:

  • $117.1 million: Amount the Republican Governors Association raised during the 2010 election cycle
  • $55.3 million: Amount the Democratic Governors Association raised during the 2010 election cycle

22,000 and counting
The American people understand that money buys influence, and transparency can help stave off corruption. What’s more, they care a lot about it. In just five days, Public Citizen gathered 22,000 signatures on a petition urging President Barack Obama to sign an executive order requiring any company vying for a government contract to disclose details of its political giving On Wednesday, Public Citizen delivered those signatures to the White House and participated in a press conference with other public interest groups.

Good government groups condemn new left-leaning money machines
We told you last week about two new groups being formed by former White House officials to raise money to sway the upcoming elections. The idea is to take a page from the conservative playbook, which launched several notable money machines to influence the 2010 midterm elections. Good government groups are crying foul and saying that’s it’s not okay to do it just because the other guys are doing it. Public Citizen wants Obama to condemn the groups. And Democracy 21 told a reporter that good government groups may ask the IRS to investigate a potential tax status violation.

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Posted in: Activism, Campaign Finance, Congress, Money & Democracy Update1 comments

March30

Obama misses the point on energy security

By: Tyson Slocum

President Barack Obama should rethink his definition and strategy of energy security.

While Obama touted lofty goals about cutting our dependence on foreign oil in his address today, he missed the point.

Energy security is not just about reducing oil imports. It’s also about addressing how we get energy here at home. The crisis following last year’s BP oil spill showed us that domestic drilling is not a pathway for security. It shut down the Gulf economy for months, and the fishing industry may never rebound. Energy security starts and ends with curbing our oil addiction – period – not just cutting off oil imports.

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Posted in: Climate Change, Energy, Environment, Nuclear Power, Regulation0 comments

March22

In wake of Japanese crisis, Obama should reject Duke Energy’s $10 million loan for Democratic convention

By: Tyson Slocum

A $10 million line of credit provided to the Democratic National Committee by nuclear power company Duke Energy should be rejected by President Barack Obama. As the administration formulates its response to the Japanese nuclear crisis, it should not be accepting support from nuclear power interests, particularly since this significant corporate loan to the president’s re-election convention committee undermines the president’s recent convention financing cleanup efforts.

During the 2008 election campaign, then-Sen. Obama qualified his response to nuclear power expansion with a long list of issues that would need to be resolved – including safety and waste storage – before he would fully endorse the technology. But while the Japanese continue to contend with the threat of significant releases of radioactivity from its damaged reactors, and U.S. reactor and spent fuel storage vulnerabilities come in to question, the Obama administration continues to profess its commitment to use taxpayer money to build new reactors.

On March 12, the media reported that Duke Energy was providing the Democratic convention host committee with a $10 million line of credit for the party’s 2012 national convention to re-elect Obama. The money will be paid back, but the president’s re-election campaign should not be relying on loan guarantees from the nuclear industry at a time when the industry’s future is contingent on obtaining loan guarantees from the U.S. government.

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Posted in: Campaign Finance, Congress, Energy, Environment, Ethics, Nuclear Power, Open Government3 comments

February24

“Transparent” White House holding off-the-record lobbyist meetings

By: Dorry Samuels

Flickr photo by Matthew and Tracie

So the Obama administration is supposed to be all about transparency, particularly when it comes to lobbyists, right? Now it looks like even the do-gooders have made some missteps.

Politico’s Chris Frates broke the story this morning that the White House is continuing to meet with lobbyists, just not always inside the famous Pennsylvania Avenue mansion. Instead, they’re going up the street to townhouses off White House property — out of the public eye and off the public record.

The White House alleges that the Jackson Place additional meeting space is used when the White House is filled or when there’s no time to clear participants through the security screening. But some of the lobbyists involved think otherwise.

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Posted in: Ethics, Midmorning Refill, Open Government0 comments

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