Is your member of Congress serving you, or serving himself? Many lawmakers, when they approach retirement, begin negotiating with lobbying firms to receive multimillion dollar salaries after they leave office. In some cases, a Senator or Representative will slip language into a bill or write an earmark that benefits a special interest, and when they
Continue Reading >>>

The rise of the super PAC has been one of the defining trends of the 2012 election. These non-campaign organizations which, thanks in part to the Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United decision, can raise and spend unlimited amounts influencing elections have had a staggering impact on how candidates and campaigns get their messages to voters.
Continue Reading >>>

Yesterday I listened over the web to two CEOs of for-profit education companies make presentations at an investor conference in Scottsdale, Arizona. Neither man had anything to say about the overwhelming evidence that for-profit schools have engaged in waste, fraud, and abuse with federal tax dollars.  Instead, both touted their companies, and one announced a startling
Continue Reading >>>

Imagine a group of high-profile politicians, both Democrats and Republicans, enlisting their services on behalf of a group designated by the U.S. State Department as terrorist organization, a group that has killed Americans. Imagine these politicos appearing at the group’s cult-like rallies, where the group’s leaders call for the day when this organization takes over a nation
Continue Reading >>>

Update: Republic Report has launched an effort to bring transparency to the revolving door. See our letter to retiring lawmakers here; David Halperin explains why here. Selling out pays. If you’re a corporation or lobbyist, what’s the best way to “buy” a member of Congress? Secretly promise them a million dollars or more in pay
Continue Reading >>>

With 91 percent of campaign ads in Mississippi and Alabama in the past month funded by super PACs, Americans have one thing to say to these political spending monsters: Get off my TV. A new poll finds that the majority of all Americans and registered voters alike say super PACs, the non-campaign organizations that can
Continue Reading >>>

Today, United Republic and Republic Report were joined by a passionate group of activists outside Koch Industries’ downtown Washington lobbying headquarters to criticize the petrochemical billionaire Koch brothers’ attempt to take over the Cato Institute. Cato has a long history of fierce libertarian beliefs, widening the debate in Washington on everything from civil liberties to
Continue Reading >>>

Poor Senator Orrin Hatch. FreedomWorks, a group run by Dick Armey, a congressman who left office to become a corporate lobbyist, is running a series of ads to defeat Hatch in the Utah Republican primary. As iWatch News reports, FreedomWorks has used an accounting trick to move 100% secret money from its 501(c)(4) to its
Continue Reading >>>