Full disclosure is essential
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: President Barack Obama is currently faced with an opportunity to force government contractors to make public their campaign contributions to candidates and political parties.
The way it stands now, private-sector companies receive nearly half-a-trillion dollars per year in contracts from the federal government. Twenty-five of those companies receive about 40 percent of the contracts, an estimated $184 billion in 2014.
It would be naive to imagine that the companies in question do not attempt to influence the awarding of these government contracts through campaign contributions to candidates of both parties, to the parties themselves and to the various organizations that undergird America’s political world.
The kicker is that, as of now, there is no requirement for these companies and their senior executives to disclose their political contributions to any oversight body. What they do with their money can remain in the dark, out of sight of the taxpayers who put up the money that goes to pay them through the government contracts they receive.
Obama could fix this piece of injustice easily, with an executive order requiring all companies receiving government contracts to disclose to the Federal Election Commission, or ... to the Department of Justice, all the money it puts into the electoral process.