San Francisco (Obama.net)- A staple of the week for the President of the United States of America for nearly a century, the weekly radio address was delivered as scheduled by President Barack Obama on Saturday. Obama addressed two very important issues this time around. Obama made his disapproval of political funding for ads very clear, as well as calling on Republicans to once again stop playing political games and allow an important piece of legislature to pass.
Obama first addressed Congress, asking for new measures to be put into effect that would make it mandatory to publicize who funds political campaigns and advertisements. Obama said that by leaving it private, there is no way to know who is paying for ads and thus buying the support of certain politicians once they are in office.
Obama said Saturday, “We don’t know who’s behind these ads and we don’t know who’s paying for them. You don’t know if it’s a foreign controlled corporation. You don’t know if it’s BP. You don’t know if it’s a big insurance company or a Wall Street Bank.”
Republicans in the United States Senate have blocked the Disclose Act, which would make such funders public. They claim that the act would interfere with the free speech right of the corporations to fund whoever they choose.
Obama disagrees as the corporations can continue to fund whomever they choose, given that the action is made public.
Obama is tired of Republicans standing in the way of such essential legislation. In addition, Obama and the rest of the Democratic Party are growing intolerant of American elections being too highly influenced by corporations and other institutions from abroad.
Obama said, “At a time of such challenge for America we can’t afford these political games. We’re going to continue to fight for reform and transparency.”
While the Republicans believe that it is their right to receive funding from whomever they please without allowing the public to know who it came from, there is nothing unconstitutional about the Disclose Act’s intentions as well as President Obama’s, to relieve where the money is coming from.
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