Mitch McConnell: Democrats' Anti-Corruption Bill Aims To 'Swing Elections'

[dajoki]

Mitch McConnell: Democrats’ Anti-Corruption Bill Aims To ‘Swing Elections’
The Senate majority leader fumed over Democrats’ attempts to strengthen voting rights, ethics and campaign finance rules.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/mconnell-democrats-anti-corruption-bill_us_5c412964e4b0a8dbe16f687c

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) accused House Democrats of trying to “swing elections” with a major piece of legislation designed to clean up voting and campaign finance and strengthen government ethics.

McConnell described the so-called For the People Act as a “power grab” and a “naked attempt to change the rules of American politics to benefit one party” in a Thursday op-ed for The Washington Post.

The top Republican criticized Democrats for introducing the bill, also known as HR1, while the longest-ever partial government shutdown continues.

“House Democrats won’t come to the table and negotiate to reopen the government, but they’ve been hard at work angling for more control over what you can say about them and how they get reelected,” McConnell wrote.

Later Thursday, McConnell blocked legislation aimed at reopening most of the federal government, except the Department of Homeland Security, according to The Hill.

The act, the first major bill House Democrats have introduced to the 116th Congress, contains a package of reforms that aim to make voting more accessible, force President Donald Trump (and future presidential candidates) to release their tax returns and take power away from big political donors by incentivizing smaller donations and by requiring super PACs to make their private donors public.

The bill also aims to make Election Day a paid holiday for federal workers, which McConnell dismissed as a “generous new benefit” for “federal bureaucrats.” In theory, that proposal would encourage private businesses to also make Election Day a holiday, allowing more people to get to the polls.

McConnell also suggested that making private donors public was an attack on free speech.

“Apparently the Democrats define ‘democracy’ as giving Washington a clearer view of whom to intimidate and leaving citizens more vulnerable to public harassment over private views,” McConnell wrote.

The Republican also took issue with the bill’s ban on removing people from voter rolls for not voting in a previous election, as well as a ban on voter caging, a practice in which election officials send non-forwardable mail to addresses on the voter rolls, then remove anyone whose mail is returned to sender.

<<snip>>

[anarch]

1. "woah, hold on, corruption is a core Republican value..."

"If we can't take bribes, what's the point of being in congress??" and "hey wait, if we can't suppress votes how are Repubs supposed to survive???"

fucking traitorous scum.

[NotAPuppet]

2. Swing elections?

Elections won’t be decided by Putin, the Koch brothers, the Mercers, and other Trump supporting billionaires? Over McTurtle’s dead body!

[LW1977]

3. Fuck you turtle!!

Can't stand him!

[bdamomma]

4. Mitch is in meltdown too.

sick man.

He is vile.

The more he obstructs, his party will go down, I am hoping this will bring him the party down more.

[Andy823]

15. Yes he is

All of the republicans who took money from Russia are going to be in trouble, and the longer they keep covering things up, the worse it will be.

When the truth comes out it will be a disaster for republicans.

[bdamomma]

17. I just hate

how they scapegoat Democrats, this is on them, this shutdown is on them. We are the grown ups not them. We need to stand firm.

But I think the approval ratings will spike downwards after this.

[LakeSuperiorView]

5. "How can the Republican Party continue to exist if we can't cheat?"

[NYC Liberal]

6. He is right about one thing: it will hurt the GOP,

because the GOP only wins by cheating. Making sure our elections are fair and honest will definitely hurt them.

[bdamomma]

8. exactly

repigs can't govern they cheat.

[DetlefK]

7. If he doesn't want election day to be a holiday, why not simply move it to Sunday?

In Germany, elections are always on Sunday.

Also, they are always pen&paper.
Also, there is automatic voter-registration.
Also, the voter-registry gets updated incrementally in real-time, not with purges.
Also, you get an election-notification by mail when and where you are supposed to vote and in order to vote you need that notification plus your ID.
Also, voter-registries are furthermore divided into polling-stations, so that each neighborhood has one polling-station responsible for always the same few hundred people and you can only vote at this one polling-station.
Also, votes are counted by hand.
Also, you are allowed to set up a camera to record the vote-counting, as long as you're not getting in the way of the election-workers.
Also, despite all this Germany somehow still manages to do the vote-count between 6 pm when the polls close and 8 pm for the prime-time evening news.

[Hermit-The-Prog]

10. Canada uses paper for federal and provincial ballots

Canadians still mark a paper ballot and drop it in a box.

It's the safest method.

[FakeNoose]

9. What have the Koch Brothers been doing for the last 10 years? Exactly that!

Swinging elections with their secret campaign money, their voting machine hackers and underhanded ratf*cking TV ads. Lately it hasn't even been so secret, they're doing it right out in the open now.

The Democratic Party has to fight this with urgency, or it's all over by 2020. Game, set, match.
If McConnell sees corruption in his own party, why isn't he doing anything to stop it?

[Wounded Bear]

11. Yeah, we want to swing elections so the ones with the most votes win...

[MagickMuffin]

12. So, Mitch you have time to write an op-ed, and place blame on Democrats

and to blame them for the TrumpShutdown.

However, you refuse to hold a vote. That power belongs solely on your shoulders, (Do turtle have shoulders?) and you can do something about it. But you don't want to help the people who are forced to be unemployed because of you and your master which ever one you ascribe to trump'd or putin.

“Apparently the Democrats define ‘democracy’ as giving Washington a clearer view of whom to intimidate and leaving citizens more vulnerable to public harassment over private views,” McConnell wrote.

While your party intimidates at the polls. And your party constantly harasses democrats over our public views. We don't need to hide, we are open about our views, while you guys insist on hiding. Just WTF are you hiding Comrade McConnell.

[DFW]

13. I was at a gathering of hardened political types over New Year's

At one panel, after the big VIP types had spoken, the rest of us peons were allowed one-minute comments.

A lot of them were about "the will of the voters," etc. etc.

My comment was: "we will never even KNOW what the will of the voters is until everyone votes who is eligible to do so. I therefore propose a simple solution. If you are a citizen of this country, at least 18 years of age, you are automatically registered and eligible to vote. Period. No one can take that right away from you. Any attempt to deny that right is a felony. THEN we'll know what 'the will of the voters' is." I got the only round of applause. Not that it'll happen, but maybe a seed got planted somewhere.

[allgood33]

14. You're damn right it does!! nt

[scarytomcat]

16. that is as much as admitting you are denying people their right to vote

and gaming the system
when free speech is hidden is it speech at all?
he has no ethics

[spanone]

18. i.e. if we can't cheat, we can't win.

[coeur_de_lion]

19. Aw cry me a river you lying POS. That is all.