I’m Confused!

Pelosi Targets Grassroots Freedom of Speech

House Speaker-to-be Nancy Pelosi (D.-Calif.) has pledged to take up a lobbying reform proposal that would impose new regulations on speech by grassroots organizations, while providing a loophole in the rules for large corporations and labor unions.

I thought the lefties claimed to be strong supporters of “free speech” stated in the 1st Amendment. I don’t think Pelosi is off to such a good start! And she hasn’t even taken the office yet.

The legislation would make changes to the legal definition of “grassroots lobbying” and require any organization that encourages 500 or more members of the general public to contact their elected representatives to file a report with detailed information about their organization to the government on a quarterly basis.

This, no doubt, would include all internet grassroots organizations. I guess maybe Pelosi got too much mail from the opposition?

“Right now, grassroots groups don’t have to report at all if they are communicating with the public,” said Dick Dingman of the Free Speech Coalition, Inc. “This is an effort that would become a major attack on the 1st Amendment.”

Well, it’s called free speech for a darn good reason! We don’t have to tell Ms. Pelosi, or anyone else, that we are communicating. It’s F-R-E-E!

“The IRS has a definition that requires all organizations, including non-profits, to file as a part of our tax returns,” Holman said. “When it comes to the election code and the lobbying disclosure act, they have no definition of grassroots lobbying. It’s excluded from everything. The IRS has a definition of grassroots lobbying, but their information is not publicly reported. It’s just our tax returns to the IRS.”

Instead of trying to regulate a citizen’s rights, Ms. Pelosi should, instead, try getting the IRS out of our lives by abolishing it! I’m in favor of a flat tax, but at this point, anything is better than what we’ve got now.  I’d even go for the Fair Tax.

“This bill would apply to those who have no Washington-based lobbyists, who provide no money or gifts to members of Congress, and who merely seek to speak, associate and petition the government,” it said. “Regulating the speech, publishing, association and petitioning rights of citizens is not targeted at corruption in Washington, as Public Citizen and its supporters would believe. Instead, it is targeted directly at the 1st-Amendment rights of citizens and their voluntary associations.”

The whole thing seems fairly pointless if it doesn’t fix the problems in Washington. Those of us out in flyover country don’t really have much influence. We can send our representatives letters and emails, we can call them, but I don’t see that it’s ever had much effect on how they vote.

The Lobbying Transparency and Accountability Act, which made some of these changes, was actually approved by both the House and the Senate in the 109th Congress, but failed to make it through a conference committee.

To help dramatize the bill this time around, Pelosi is planning to assign sponsorship of various amendments to incoming freshman, which they will promote in their maiden House floor speeches.

This sure sounds like micro managing to me. But, I’ll be the first to admit I am ignorant when it comes to how D.C. actually functions. Does anyone really know? However, I do know when my right “to petition the government for a redress of grievances” is in jeopardy.