Obama Attacks GOP For Defending Corporate Takeover Of Government. But Is It Fair?

By Yashwanth Manjunath

In his weekly address yesterday President Obama attacked the GOP for their continued opposition to the DISCLOSE Act, claiming that their opposition amounts to support for a corporate takeover of government. The DISCLOSE Act would impose new donor and contribution requirements on nearly all organizations that air political ads independently of candidates or political parties. The legislation would require the sponsor of the ad to appear in it and take responsibility for the content. Its purpose is to counter the recent Supreme Court decision in Citizens United v. FEC 558 U.S. 50 (2010). While it’s nice to see the president finally attack the GOP for their obstruction on an important issue like campaign finance reform, he is not being entirely fair to them.

If one were to take away corporate cash from the Democrats, they’d still have union money they can fall back on, in addition to small donors. Without corporate money the Republicans have, well… nothing. Without vast amounts of corporate money spent by shadow groups hiding their true intentions, the Republicans are unable to engage properly in the Orwellian tactics they need to employ in order to convince the American middle class to vote against their own economic interests.

Limits on corporate political speech and contributions would also require Republicans to fund-raise effectively from someone other than Wall Street bankers, health insurance company CEOs, defense contractors, and oil company executives. Who would John Boehner ask for money when he goes to play golf, the country club caddies?   Furthermore, the Republicans have lost all practice at coming up with policy ideas that benefit the majority of Americans and not just their corporate sponsors contributors. They haven’t had to do that since the Eisenhower administration! How dare President Obama ask the Republicans to fight against a corporate takeover of government? Obama should issue a full apology to the Republican Party for his completely unreasonable request!

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