On Off The Presses last week, we caught up with Dick Castner of the
U.S. Chamber of Commerce who explained how the pending "Disclose"
Act will put business interests at competitive disadvantages when
supporting candidates.
Still
awaiting action by the U.S.
Senate, the bill would sets new rules for American corporations and
interest
groups, including a prohibition of corporations and other interest
groups in
coordinating spending with candidates or political parties. Plus, CEOs
would
have to appear in any ads paid for by their corporations (which, of
course,could help launch the political careers of more corporate
executives).
We also spoke with CSU Channel Islands political science
professors Sean Kelly
and Scott Frisch,
who have co-authored a new book about Congressional pork spending,
"Cheese Factories on the Moon: Why Earmarks are Good for American
Democracy," which will be published this summer by Paradigm Publishers.
They
contend that budget earmarks are good and effective in getting projects funded
that otherwise would wallow in red tape and lack of funds. They conceive that
some earmarks are silly, but usually the authors think that they’re good such
as the US Coast Guard’s computer network based in the late Sen. Robert Byrd’s
landlocked home state of West Virginia.
Click here to listen to the show and find out which former U.S.
Senator used the term "cheese factories on the moon."