Lamar Smith and Republicans want to hide those who support them

Congressmen Ciro Rodriguez and Charlie Gonzalez have voted for the DISCLOSE Act which would require that those who pay for campaign ads be identified in those ads and they have pledged to support several measures designed to return power to the people. They’ve promised to support amending the Constitution to protect America from unlimited corporate spending on our elections, because elections should be won and not bought. The promised to support the passage of the Fair Elections Now Act, providing public financing to candidates who are supported by small donors so they can compete with corporate-backed and self-funded candidates. They’ve also pledged to support passage of lobbyist reform legislation to end the overwhelming influence of corporate lobbyists

How have Lamar Smith and the Republicans voted and what have they pledged to do? Every single Republican in the senate voted against even debating the merits of the DISCLOSE Act. The House Republicans pledged to give tax breaks to millionaires and billionaires that will increase the deficit by trillions of dollars. They’ve promised to roll back regulations on big oil and Wall Street, the same industries that killed American workers, polluted Gulf of Mexico fisheries and wrecked out economy putting millions of Americans out of work. They’ve pledged to strike down rules reining in credit card lenders and insurance companies.

Why should any Texan support Republicans in November?

Our Internet Sold Out for Campaign Contributions

Failure to adequately regulate industry has within the last two years led to the collapse of Lehman Bros., the banking system and the U.S. economy as well as the environmental disaster in the Gulf of Mexico that British Petroleum is responsible for. The collapse of our financial markets hurt us all and has put about 10% of the labor force out of work, the oil spill in the Gulf is more localized but will harm that locality for as much as a generation. Both the fishing and tourism industries are likely to suffer for years not to mention many species of fish and birds including Louisiana’s state bird, the brown pelican, which was removed from the endangered species list just six months ago.

Now the telecommunications industry wants internet services to be unregulated. This as we’ve so recently seen is a recipe for disaster. The websites that so many of us have come to rely on and enjoy are at risk of being shoved aside by telecommunications companies that seek monopolize control of access and use of the internet in order to maximize their profits. They claim to want to advance innovation when in fact they want to stifle it. Innovation is a messy business that is most often accomplished by small organizations and seldom by monopolies.

The telecommunications industry like the Wall Street bankers and oil industry before them have exerted pressure on our elected representatives. 73 Democrats in the House including Congressmen Henry Cuellar, Ciro Rodriguez and Charlie Gonzalez have submitted to that pressure. You ask what kind of pressure, how about anywhere from $23,000 to $36,750 in campaign contributions.

It is time we had a campaign finance solution that removed the influence of special interests from the equation. It’s time we passed the Fair Elections Now Act, HR 1826, which provides for voluntary public campaign financing. Call you congressman and urge him to support Net Neutrality and co-sponsor HR 1826.