Obama Labor Sec. Nominee Continues to Have Troubles
It appears that President Obama's Labor Secretary Nominee Hilda Solis is continuing to have problems. First, possible tax violations as reported by Hanz Von Spakovsky at The Heritage Foundation:
The nomination of Solis was supposed to be voted out of committee on Thursday, but was postponed indefinitely just after USA Today reported that her husband paid off $6,400 in tax liens against his business on Wednesday, some of which had been outstanding for as long as 16 years.
Additionally, the DC Examiner reported something even more potentially troubilng:
Now the DC Examiner is reporting what could turn out to be an even more serious problem, one with potential criminal consequences. According to the report, American Rights at Work collected “at least $1 million in contributions from labor unions.” It also filed electioneering communications reports with the Federal Election Commission prior to the November election showing that ARW spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on television ads in states targeting Republican senators.
This could turn out to be a possible McCain-Feingold violation. How can President Obama continue to push someone with such a severely flawed background?
One of the purposes of the 2002 McCain-Feingold amendments to the Federal Election Campaign Act (“FECA”) was to drive “soft money” out of federal election campaigns. “Soft money” refers to funds that are outside of the limits and prohibitions of the federal law and was considered one of the biggest loopholes in the campaign finance system. And one of those long-standing prohibitions is that unions are barred from spending funds to influence federal elections and making contributions to federal candidates, as are corporations and national banks.
