America's enemies have a clear vision for how they want our country run-- and they're willing to pay to implement it

The largest attack campaign against Democrats this fall is being waged by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, a trade association organized as a 501(c)(6) that can raise and spend unlimited funds without ever disclosing any of its donors... The Chamber’s spending has dwarfed every other issue group and most political party candidate committee spending. A ThinkProgress investigation has found that the Chamber funds its political attack campaign out of its general account, which solicits foreign funding. And while the Chamber will likely assert it has internal controls, foreign money is fungible, permitting the Chamber to run its unprecedented attack campaign. According to legal experts consulted by ThinkProgress, the Chamber is likely skirting longstanding campaign finance law that bans the involvement of foreign corporations in American elections.



In recent years, the Chamber has become very aggressive with its fundraising, opening offices abroad and helping to found foreign chapters (known as Business Councils or “AmChams”). While many of these foreign operations include American businesses with interests overseas, the Chamber has also spearheaded an effort to raise money from foreign corporations, including ones controlled by foreign governments. These foreign members of the Chamber send money either directly to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, or the foreign members fund their local Chamber, which in turn, transfers dues payments back to the Chamber’s H Street office in Washington DC. These funds are commingled to the Chamber’s 501(c)(6) account which is the vehicle for the attack ads...



There are many reasons foreign corporations are seeking to defeat Democratic candidates this November. The Chamber has repeatedly sent out issue alerts attacking Democratic efforts to encourage businesses to hire locally rather than outsource to foreign counties. The Chamber has also bitterly fought Democrats for opposing unfettered free trade deals. To galvanize foreign businesses, the Chamber has commissioned former Ambassador Frank Lavin-- who served as the McCain-Palin Asia campaign director and has appeared on television multiple times recently saying a Democratic Congress is bad for business-- to speak before various foreign Chamber affiliates to talk about the stakes for the 2010 midterm elections.

For at least 44 years, it has been illegal for foreign corporations, countries and individuals to make political contributions in the United States for any election, either directly or indirectly. It is even against the law to solicit such contributions. But in this Wild West year of political money, that longstanding ban is being set aside. The United States Chamber of Commerce-- one of the biggest advertisers in midterm races around the country-- is actively soliciting foreign money, and government enforcers seem to be doing nothing to stop it.



...The chamber has vowed to spend more than $75 million before the November election, and it has already run 8,000 ads, most of which support Republican candidates. The ads do not urge a vote for or against a specific candidate, but when they accuse Senator Barbara Boxer of California of “destroying jobs,” or call Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut “the worst attorney general in the nation,” no one can mistake the intent. (The two candidates, both Democrats, are in tight Senate races.)



Because the United States Chamber is organized as a 501(c)(6) business league under the federal tax code, it does not have to disclose its donors, so the full extent of foreign influence on its political agenda is unknown. But Tuesday’s report sheds light on how it raises money abroad. Its affiliate in Abu Dhabi, for example, the American Chamber of Commerce, says it has more than 450 corporate and individual members in the United Arab Emirates who pay as much as $8,500 a year to join.



Because of a series of court decisions that culminated in the Supreme Court’s Citizens United ruling earlier this year, these and similar 501(c) nonprofits have become huge players in the year’s election, using unlimited money from donors who have no fear of disclosure. (Not surprisingly, the chamber has been a leading opponent of legislation to require disclosure.) One such group, American Crossroads, organized by Karl Rove, announced on Tuesday a $4.2 million ad buy to support Republican candidates, bringing the group’s total spending to about $18 million so far.



The possible commingling of secret foreign money into these groups raises fresh questions about whether they are violating both the letter and spirit of the campaign finance laws. The Federal Election Commission, which has been rendered toothless by its Republican members, should be investigating possible outright violations of the Federal Election Campaign Act by foreign companies and the chamber.



The Internal Revenue Service, which is supposed to ensure that these nonprofit groups are not primarily political, has fallen down on the job. Last week, Senator Max Baucus, Democrat of Montana and chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, demanded that the I.R.S. look into whether the tax code was being misused for political purposes, and, on Tuesday, two watchdog groups made the same request of the agency.



The government needs to make sure that the tax code-- and American control of American elections-- is not being violated.

Communist China knows who its friends are-- and it goes beyond just Ron Johnson who loves the Chinese slave labor model so much that he seems likely to move there if Russ Feingold manages to beat him in November. When Tim Ryan (D-OH) introduced legislation to prevent China from continuing the systematic currency manipulation that has cost Americans hundreds of thousands of jobs, it was lobbyist owned John Boehner and his entire leadership team-- Eric Cantor, Mike Pence, David Dreier, Paul Ryan, Pete Sessions-- who took the side of the Chinese against America . Even Boehner's own caucus was horrified and most Republicans deserted Boehner and his Communist Chinese allies and crossed the aisle to vote with the Democrats and, for a change, the interests of ordinary American working families. Yesterday, Think Progress broke the story on just how China and other foreign interests are going about taking over the U.S. government-- using the easily manipulatable Republicans and their reactionary allies at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. [The FEC has been asked to investigate .] Meanwhile, wonderers are wondering if Boehner's lobbyist girlfriend-- who lobbies for PRINTING companies, always looking for cheap coated paper (which China has been DUMPING into the U.S. market)-- has had anything to do with Boehner having sold out the paper companies in his own district, costing hundreds of local jobs. I think this story will be breaking by the end of the week. We've been talking with some of the paper industry locals who weren't aware of the foreign money flooding into the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to help the GOP capture Congress but areaware of Boehner's disgraceful behavior when it came to saving American jobs. Remember, when senior Ohio Republicans Mike Turner and Steven LaTourette signed onto a July 28 letter to President Obama urging him to look into illegal Chinese subsidies of the coated paper dumping Boehner's girlfriend lobbyists was pumping for-- so to speak-- Boehner opposed it.Arab money, Communist Chinese money, Russian money... every shady government on earth would like to see John Boehner and the GOP in control of Congress... and thanks to a corrupt, corporate Supreme Court ruling they are flooding cash into the political system to make sure they get what they want. Inserting implausible laughing stocks inside the U.S. government-- clowns like Rand Paul, Christine O'Donnell, Daniel "Taliban Dan" Webster, Sharron Angle, Joe Miller, Linda McMahon, Ken Buck, Carly Fiorina, Mike Lee, Marco Rubio, and, of course, their very own Ron Johnson-- would be a dream come true for this country's enemies.Probably too late to stop now, but the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is clearly a criminal enterprise that should be shut down.What can we do as citizens? If you see an ad by the Chamber of Commerce, understand that it's being funded by another country with interests antithetical to our own. If the ad is anti-Candidate A, vote for that candidate. Keep China from taking over America through John Boehner.The Feingold campaign is calling on Ron Johnson to denounce a new attack ad after revelations yesterday that the attack ad, paid for by the Chamber of Commerce, may be funded by foreign contributions. The ad by the Chamber of Commerce is the fifth out-of-state corporate special interest to run television ads in Wisconsin attacking Russ Feingold in an effort to elect Johnson. According to a report released today, the Chamber has promised to spend $75 million running attack ads across the country. The report revealed “that the Chamber funds its political attack campaign out of its general account, which solicits foreign funding.”

Labels: campaign finance reform, Chamber of Commerce, China, ThinkProgress