The Obama Administration is floating a proposal that would bring a little more transparency to the political process by requiring government contractors to disclose their campaign contributions over $5,000. Rep. Darrell Issa, Chairman of the House Oversight & Government Reform Committee is strongly opposed to the proposed rule, since improved disclosure can be a double-edged sword. On the one hand, improved disclosure would make the committee’s job easier, since more information would be readily available to investigate unethical pay-to-play contracts. But on the other hand, disclosure would be a bit awkward if it’s your political contributors wasting billions of taxpayer dollars or if you may have personally benefit from the nearly $1 million in earmarks you secured.

Issa isn’t totally against the idea of disclosure and record keeping—as long as it only applies to other people, such as Democrats. Could it be that the chairman of the committee charged with protecting the American people’s resources from waste and abuse might really just be interested in deciding who gets to waste and abuse?

See Common Cause’s call for the executive order here.