The Republicans Are Marking The Deck

They are doing everything in their power to rig the elections in their favor. Gerrymandering elections districts, voter disenfranchisement laws and now this…

Nestled in House Spending Bill: Campaign Finance Deregulation
House package is unlikely to advance in the Senate, but provisions easing rules for companies and churches could become bargaining chips
Wall Street Journal
By Cezary Podkul
Updated Sept. 10, 2017

WASHINGTON—House Republicans are backing several provisions that could reshape campaign-finance rules ahead of next year’s midterm elections as spending negotiations continue this fall.

The measures are included in a GOP package of spending bills being debated in the House. While the House package is unlikely to advance in the Senate, its provisions could become bargaining chips in the negotiations leading up to the next government-funding deadline, now Dec. 8.
[…]
Under one deregulatory measure in the spending package, churches may be able to contribute to candidates without fear of losing their tax-exempt status, furthering President Donald Trump’s promise to “get rid of and totally destroy” a law that forbids such activity.

In other words, they want to give special rights to churches allowing them that no other non-profit can do, campaign to a candidate.

Corporations also would be able to ask their employees to donate to unlimited numbers of trade associations’ political-action groups instead of limiting employee solicitations to one group per year.

So companies can twist their employees arms to get to donate to PAC that might be detrimental to the employees. How would you like to be told by your employer to donate to a PAC that was trying to do away with overtime pay?

Other measures included in the bill would continue to prevent the Internal Revenue Service and the Securities and Exchange Commission from implementing rules that would affect political activities of 501(C)(4) nonprofits and publicly traded corporations, respectively.

So at the same time that the Republicans want to exempt churches that want to tighten down on other non-profits.

The multiple provisions—called riders—are prompting pushback from campaign-finance watchdogs, who generally favor tighter restrictions on money in politics. The provisions have been sought by religious or business groups, who have argued they are otherwise hamstrung from fully participating in the political process.

The Republicans are doing everything that they can to stack the deck in their favor and make this a one party nation.