Democracy | News-Opinion
TOP NEWS: Democracy: July 17, 2012
- Obama and Romney Step Up Accusations on Jobs
- Why Democrats are willing to walk off the fiscal cliff
- Veepstakes: The fine line between safe and boring
- Republicans block DISCLOSE Campaign Spending Act
- FDA lawyers authorized spying on agency’s employees
Excerpts and More Top Stories
ELECTIONS 2012: Obama and Romney Step Up Accusations on Jobs
Peter Baker and Michael D. Shear, NY Times - Mr. Obama took aim at Mr. Romney’s corporate tax proposals, saying they would create jobs overseas rather than at home. Mr. Romney’s campaign accused Mr. Obama of “crony capitalism” by using government resources to reward donors at the expense of the middle class.
POLL: Why Democrats are willing to walk off the fiscal cliff-44% ok with tax increase over $250k; 22% say it will hurt the economy
Chris Cillizza and Aaron Blake, Washington Post - Forty-four percent of people in a new Pew Research Center poll said that a tax increase on incomes over $250,000, which is what President Obama and congressional Democrats are pushing, would help the economy, while 22 percent said it would hurt the economy.
ELECTIONS 2012: Veepstakes: The fine line between safe and boring
Lois Romano, POLITICO - Rob Portman is believed to a top contender to be Mitt Romney’s running mate.
CAMPAIGN FINANCE: DISCLOSE Campaign Spending Act Blocked By Senate Republicans
Paul Blumenthal, Huffington Post - The bill was not expected to beat back the Republican filibuster, which was led by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.). McConnell, called the “Darth Vader of campaign finance reform” in the past, recently made news by giving a series of speeches declaring that campaign finance disclosure amounted to nothing short of harassment and a suppression of speech.
FDA: FDA lawyers authorized spying on agency’s employees, senator says
Ellen Nakashima and Lisa Rein, Washington Post - FDA spokeswoman Erica Jefferson said that the surveillance was limited in scope and reiterated that it was relegated to government computers. “We did not impede or interfere with any employee communication to Congress, their staff, media or federal investigators,” she said.
HEALTHCARE: Health Law Opponents Challenge Tax Credit
Loise Radnofsky, WSJ - Opponents of the health-care overhaul are seizing on how tax credits to buy insurance are distributed as a new front in their fight against the law. Conservative critics have zeroed in on wording in the law that says state-run programs would be the vehicle for subsidizing the cost of mandatory health insurance for lower-income Americans starting in 2014.
CAMPAIGN FINANCE: The Power of Anonymity in the Republican DISCLOSE vote
NY Times Opinion - Not one Republican in the Senate showed the courage to break ranks and speak up for the disclosure of top-dollar donors to political campaigns, including John McCain, once the great champion of campaign finance reform who has been predicting that “huge scandals” will inevitably flow from Citizens United.
More on Elections 2012:
ELECTIONS 2012: Obama heads to Texas for a day of campaign fundraising
David Nakamura, Washington Post - The home base of Obama’s Republican predecessor, George W. Bush, and would-be GOP challenger Gov. Rick Perry, Texas has been surprisingly fruitful territory for Obama’s fundraising.. The president has raised $15.7 million in the Lone Star state this cycle, the fifth-highest total of any state.
ELECTIONS 2012: Romney’s problem is of his own making
Eugene Robinson, RealClear Opinion - The only reason anyone cares when Romney left Bain Capital, is because he made a totally unreasonable claim: When Democrats pointed to outsourcing and job cuts at companies Bain owned or controlled, Romney denied any responsibility since these unfortunate developments took place after he left to run the Winter Olympics in 1999.
ELECTIONS 2012: Romney: Obama Wasted Tax Money on Favors to Donors
Sara Murray, WSJ - “He has taken your money, your tax money and given it to the businesses owned by his campaign contributors. And at best that stinks,” Mr. Romney said at a fundraiser here Monday.
ELECTIONS 2012: Obama’s Populist Pitch Divides Suburban Voters
Collen McCain Nelson, WSJ - Obama and Romney are battling over suburban, upper middle-class voters. The question is whether these voters agree with Obama’s more populist economic message—or whether the tax-the-rich rhetoric is pushing them away.
ELECTIONS 2012: Mormons’ First Families Rally Behind Romney
NY Times - Mr. Romney’s candidacy has produced great pride among many Mormons, known officially as members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. But a core group of the religion’s most prominent families share with him not only a faith, but also a dramatic history in which they have scaled the ladder of American society, starting as vilified outsiders and, after helping to settle the American West, rising to the heights of wealth and success within four generations.
ELECTIONS 2012: Romney, Obama drum up donations overseas
Matt Viser, Boston Globe - A variety of factors are driving the bid for overseas donations. With businesses growing in international hubs like London and Hong Kong, there are more potential donors living abroad. But the primary force is that with candidates backing out of the public financing system, there is an insatiable appetite for raising money, no matter where it comes from.
ELECTIONS 2012: How Can Anyone Govern After This Campaign?
Stuart Rothenberg, Roll Call - The nature of the 2012 presidential campaign so far raises questions about how, or even whether, the eventual winner will be able to govern. It’s only July, but the two presidential campaigns are already calling each other names. The past two years could seem like a period of bipartisanship compared with the next two.
ELECTIONS 2012: President Obama is weaning himself off his teleprompter
Amie Parnes, The Hill - At recent campaign events Obama spoke to crowds without his teleprompter, instead using written notes. Team Obama thinks the switch, or partial switch — the president is not giving up the teleprompter entirely — will help him better connect with voters.
More on Campaign Finance:
CAMPAIGN FINANCE: The Super PAC That Aims to End Super PACs
Michael D. Shear, NY Times - Jonathan Soros has started a new Super PAC aimed at lessening the impact of Super PACs. He wants to use the $5 million to $8 million he plans on raising for negative ads aiming at politicians who oppose campaign finance reform. “The irony is not lost on anybody,” He said.
CAMPAIGN FINANCE: Tax-Exempt Group’s Election Activity Highlights Limits of Campaign Finance Rules
Jonathan Weisman, NY Times - Efforts to require more public accounting of campaign money hit a new roadblock Monday evening with a Republican fillibuster that stopped the Senate from formally debating it. The measure fell 9 votes short of the 60 required to pass. But Democratic senators planned to keep discussing the bill and Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the majority leader, voted no so that under Senate rules, he could bring it up for a second vote on Tuesday to highlight Republican opposition.
CAMPAIGN FINANCE: Romney Victory Raises $140 Million, Exploits Campaign Finance Loophole
Paul Blumenthal, Huffington Post – The $24 million that cannot go to either the Romney campaign or the RNC will likely be diverted to the state party committees in Idaho, Massachusetts, Oklahoma and Vermont as part of a clever scheme to take advantage of loopholes in campaign finance law that allow one donor to provide more than the legal contribution limit to efforts in battleground states.
CAMPAIGN FINANCE: Inside the Investigation of Leading Republican Money Man Sheldon Adelson
Matt Isaacs, Lowell Bergman and Stephen Engelberg, Pro Publica and PBS - Leading Republican donor Sheldon Adelson is the largest Republican donor in the 2012 campaign. Now, some of the methods Adelson used to save his company and help build a personal fortune estimated at $25 billion have come under expanding scrutiny by federal and Nevada investigators.
More top stories
EDUCATION: UVA takes major step in online education
The university is joining a prestigious online consortium led by two Stanford University professors and participating in “Coursera,” an initiative to offer free online courses to the masses,
PRIVATIZATION: Financial Woes Plague a Penal Company Tied to Christie
Sam Dolnick, NY Times - Community Education Centers, which plays a critical role in New Jersey’s corrections system, has had such severe financial difficulties that it contemplated filing for bankruptcy in 2010, newly disclosed documents show.
