In a post-Citizens United world, where big money is corrupting our democracy, secret “dark” money is the worst of the worst. It’s a way for mega donors and corporate special interests to hide their political spending from the public. They set up fake nonprofit social welfare groups and front originations with innocuous sounding names to keep their real agenda hidden.
One such group is the shady organization called No Labels. No Labels wants people to believe its mission is to find bipartisanship solutions – it even has its own affiliated caucus in Congress, called the Problem Solvers. But the truth is No Labels is just a front group for a handful of mega donors looking to stack the deck in their favor at the expense of everyone else.
Earlier this year, the Chicago Sun Times exposed No Labels campaign finance scheme,
“No Labels, a group advocating bipartisanship in Congress, has created a network of Super PACs to influence the 2018 elections — but doesn’t want its fingerprints on the money
…
“A Sun-Times investigation determined Super PACS related to No Labels include: United for Progress Inc.; Citizens for a Strong America Inc.; United Together; Govern or Go Home; and Forward, Not Back.”
Further investigations by other media outlets uncovered more about the network and its donors. The Intercept reported that it consists of eight Super PACs associated with No Labels and, despite the litany of PACs, the donors remain largely the same group of about 13 wealthy businessmen, most of whom have a history of financing Republican campaigns.”
How is a dark money group, with a network of Super PACs, funded by a dozen or so mega donors using “bipartisanship” to look out for the best interest of American families? The short answer is that it isn’t.
As the Atlantic reports, “Members of the Problem Solvers from both parties meet regularly and met with Trump at the White House last September. So far, they have not produced any workable legislative solution on any issue.”
In fact, No Labels has gone so far to even give Donald Trump an award as a “Problem Solver.” There are a lot of descriptions you can use for Donald Trump, but “Problem Solver” in not one of them.
Instead, No Labels has tried to undermine Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, as a Daily Beast investigation found, “Internal communications reviewed by The Daily Beast show that early this year the group No Labels, a centrist advocacy organization, contemplated a plan to kneecap Pelosi’s political standing.”
According to the Atlantic, No Labels has even encouraged Democrats in the Problem Solver’s caucus to oppose Pelosi’s for Speaker and to withhold support unless she agreed to rule changes that would benefit corporate special interests, despite the fact that, “The Republican members of the Problem Solvers Caucus made no such demands on Paul Ryan before supporting him in his bid for speaker last year.”
One thing those 13 mega donors succeeded in obtaining was a giant tax break from Paul Ryan that blew a hole in the budget.
Their tax break comes at great cost to the American people, many of whom will end up paying more in taxes to cover the bill. It added almost $2 trillion to the debt, and risks the future of Social Security and Medicare for hard working families who played by the rules.
Now, Nancy Pelosi is on the verge of becoming Speaker, and the Democratic caucus is poised to pass a bold and sweeping reform package to take on corruption and clean up elections – including shinning a light on dark money.
That would give power back to the people and make it harder for No Labels and its network of super PACs to take advantage of an antiquated, shadowy, broken campaign finance system. This is the reform the American people demanded in the 2018 midterms – and it will come at the expense of the corporate interests like No Labels, which will no longer be able to hide behind a fake bipartisan facade.