Politics

Pelosi: ‘I’d like to form a PAC to end all PACs’

Nicholas Ballasy Senior Video Reporter
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In an effort to “amend the Constitution” and keep corporate money out of campaigns, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said she would “like to form a PAC to end all PACs.”

The former House speaker was asked if her push for passage of the DISCLOSE Act has anything to do with GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney currently raising more than President Barack Obama.

“No, it has nothing to do with that. This is about our democracy. It’s stunning that the Supreme Court would take such an undermining of democracy approach to how we go forward,” Pelosi responded, referring to the Citizens United case.

“I completely disagree with what they did but everybody should disclose and I think we should, that’s why I say, amend the Constitution to do away with that, and reform the system so that we have citizen participation, and get rid of these PACs.”

“I’d like to form a PAC to end all PACs. I mean, the big secret PACs like that — a PAC to end all PACs. So, no, this is something that is, again, fundamental to the democracy. You cannot have big money on any side in making that determination.”

Pelosi continued, “When people say I’m going to put up $400 million, what is it that they want? They want their tax breaks, but they want government shrunk — and we don’t want any government bigger than we need, but we need to have public-private partnerships.”

Last month, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell blasted the DISCLOSE Act in a speech at the American Enterprise Institute.

“This is the Democrats’ legislative response to Citizens United, in which the Supreme Court correctly ruled that Congress may not ban political speech based on the identity of the speaker,” McConnell said.

“The DISCLOSE Act aims to get around this ruling by compelling certain targeted groups to disclose the names of their donors, while excluding others, such as unions, from doing the same.” (RELATED: McConnell: Obama seeking to change First Amendment ‘an act of radicalism’)

“If disclosure is forced upon some but not all, it’s not an act of good government,” McConnell said. “It’s a political weapon, and that’s precisely what those who are pushing this legislation have in mind. This is nothing less than an effort by the government itself to expose its critics to harassment and intimidation, either by government authorities or through third-party allies. And that should concern every one of us.”

Editor’s note: Hours after delivering the remarks on the video above, Pelosi’s office insisted to TheDC that Pelosi had said she wanted a “pact” — not a “PAC” — to end all PACs.

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