In their Pledge to America, Republicans pledged to make government more transparent. Are they telling the truth, or is this just one more in the long list of Republican lies to America. The proof is in the voting, so lets take a look.

Despite promises of Senate Democrats to amend their signature campaign disclosure legislation, a unified Republican caucus today again blocked the legislation from an up-or-down vote in Congress’ upper chamber. Republicans stuck together to oppose the DISCLOSE Act, a legislative response to the Supreme Court’s January ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, which opened the door for unrestricted sums of corporate and union treasury money to fund political advertisements. A unified Democratic caucus supported the legislation, voting 59-39 on a procedural vote that needed 60 votes to pass. Republicans successfully filibustered the DISCLOSE Act in July as well, after the House narrowly passed the bill in June. The bill’s main focus is new reporting and disclosure requirements for groups that run independent expenditures, such as television ads that overtly advocate for or against federal candidates, and electioneering communications — that is, broadcast communications that feature a federal candidate but don’t expressly advocate for that candidate’s election or defeat. New restrictions would apply to corporations, unions, trade associations, so-called 527 groups and 501(c)(4), (c)(5) and (c)(6) advocacy organizations. One provision would require groups to show the names of the top donors in the advertisements and have the head of the organization or the group’s largest contributor "stand by the ad" — giving the same, familiar disclaimer that candidates must include in their advertisements: "My name is so-and-so, and I approve this message." Additionally, the bill would prohibit companies from producing independent expenditures if they met certain criteria. These include bailout recipients with outstanding loans from the government’s Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), large government contractors and foreign-controlled companies… [emphasis added]

Inserted from <Common Dreams>

One day after making the pledge, Republicans had already violated it, They don’t want you to know who is financing them, because if you do, you also know just who it is that they represent. Fortunately for us, Rachel Maddow did the research and blew the lid off their lies with Chris Hayes.

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The bottom line is what I’ve been saying all week, and I hope you start saying it with me. With all their flaws, at least Democrats try to represent everyone. Republicans govern exclusively for the benefit of criminal corporations and the richest one percent.

Of course, the best solution is to institute 100% public financing of all federal campaigns. Why?