Tagged: Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell

A bill that would require Super PACs to release their donor list was defeated due to a Republican filibuster led by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., who has been a vocal opponent of the legislation.

The DISCLOSE (Democracy Is Strengthened by Casting Light On Spending in Elections) Act failed by a 51-to-44 vote, falling short of the 60 votes needed to overcome a filibuster. Since last month, McConnell has ripped the legislation as a form of intimidation being led by the Obama administration.

Local and national critics, including U.S. Rep. John Yarmuth, D-Ky., have pounced on McConnell's opposition, pointing out that he once supported the idea of full transparency.

From The Daily Beast:

Originally, conservatives like Mitch McConnell who backed the money-is-speech position offered the consolation prize of radical transparency and instant disclosure for all election-related spending, including independent expenditures.

But now such a proposal represents, in McConnell’s words, an attempt to “protect unpopular Democrat politicians by silencing their critics and exempting their campaign supporters from an all-out attack on the First Amendment.”

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., quickly came out against President Obama's push for Congress to end the Bush-era tax cuts for those who making over $250,000 annually.

The president spoke from the White House on Monday, arguing that he has cut taxes for the middle-class Americans and that 97 percent of all businesses would not see their taxes increase. It renews a previous fight between Mr. Obama and Republican lawmakers, but the proposal also puts the administration at odds with congressional Democrats who have called for extending the the cuts for everyone except people earning more than $1 million a year.

McConnell says the proposal is a tax hike that will hurt job creators.

From McConnell's office:

"It’s not an accident that the President didn’t explain how his plan to raise taxes on small businesses will create jobs—he can’t say that with a straight face, it simply isn’t true. In fact, according to the Joint Committee on Taxation, nearly a million small businesses would feel this tax hike right away, and up to a quarter of the entire American workforce depends on these employers for a paycheck.

In a stinging editorial, the New York Times chastises Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., for opposing legislation that would require Super PACs to disclose their donor lists to the public.

Last month, McConnell delivered a pointed speech against the Disclose Act where he argued it was an attempt by the Obama administration to intimidate conservative donors and organizations. The GOP leader went as far as to accuse the president of engaging in Nixonian harassment to undermine the First Amendment.

But those in support of the bill—including Congressman John Yarmuth, D-Ky.—argue the measure is necessary to know who is behind political ads in the Citizens United world.

From the New York Times:

The vast majority of the secret money going into “social welfare” organizations like Crossroads GPS, founded by Karl Rove, is being spent on behalf of Mitt Romney and other Republican candidates, and the Disclose Act is coming up for another vote in a few weeks. So Mr. McConnell needs a new excuse for filibustering it again. But his suggestion that President Obama and Democrats want disclosure in order to compile a list of “enemies” is repugnant.

Appearing on Fox News Sunday, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said a top GOP priority will be to repeal President Obama's health care overhaul.

But McConnell faced tough questions about what would replace the law.

When asked by Fox News' Chris Wallace what specifically are Republican lawmakers going to do to provide universal coverage to the uninsured, McConnell replied: "That is not the issue."

Check it out:

Joining a chorus of Republican lawmakers, Kentucky U.S. Senators Mitch McConnell and Rand Paul are requesting Attorney General Eric Holder immediately appoint a special prosecutor to investigate a series of national security leaks.

Last week, Holder announced two U.S. attorneys would lead the criminal investigation into possible leaks that some GOP lawmakers have alleged originated in the White House. But President Obama has vehemently denied his administration revealed information about the president's terrorist "kill lists" and cyber-attacks against Iran's nuclear program.

Over 30 GOP Senators have signed a letter asking the attorney general to assign a special counsel who would be "free from the appearance of politics or undue influence," to investigate. The circulated letter has the signature of many high-profiled lawmakers including Senators Jim DeMint of South Carolina, John Cornyn of Texas and Marco Rubio of Florida.

From the letter:

Dear Attorney General Holder:

The numerous national security leaks reportedly originating out of the Executive Branch in recent months have been stunning.  If true, they reveal details of some of our Nation’s most highly classified and sensitive military and intelligence matters, thereby risking our national security, as well as the lives of American citizens and our allies. If there were ever a case requiring an outside special counsel with bipartisan acceptance and widespread public trust, this is it.