Saving America Part 4-

The American public has become increasingly disgusted by the unprincipled manner in which our legislative process is conducted. The process, in essence, consists of swarms of lobbyists descending like locusts on Washington, demanding special favors in return for campaign contributions.

To begin to understand about campaign contributions you should first know that when it comes to money in politics, most people think in terms of "hard money" which is money for federal candidate campaigns that comes from legal sources, subject to contribution limits, and reported to the Federal Election Commission (FEC). Hard money stands in contrast to "soft money" which is money for political purposes that comes from sources and in amounts otherwise prohibited for federal candidate campaigns.

Although attempts to regulate campaign finance by legislation date back to 1867, the first successful attempts nationally to regulate and enforce campaign finance originated in the 1970s. The Federal Election Campaign Act (FECA) of 1972 required candidates to disclose sources of campaign contributions and campaign expenditure. It was amended in 1974 with the introduction of legal limits on contributions, and creation of the Federal Election Commission (FEC). It attempted to restrict the influence of wealthy individuals by limiting individual donations to $1000 and donations by Political Action Committees (PACs) to $5000.(Hard money)

The Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (BCRA) of 2002, also known as "McCain-Feingold," after its sponsors, is the most recent major federal law on campaign finance, which revised some of the legal limits of expenditure set in 1974, and prohibited unregulated contributions

It eliminated all soft money donations to the national party committees, but it also doubled the contribution limit of hard money, from $1,000 to $2,000 per election cycle, with a built-in increase for inflation.

Another finance reform proposal on the table now is called the Voting with Dollars plan. This plan would establish a system of modified public financing coupled with an anonymous campaign contribution process.

It has two parts: patriot dollars and the secret donation booth. The way it works is, all voters would be given a $50 publicly funded voucher (Patriot dollars) to donate to federal political campaigns. All donations including both the $50 voucher and additional private contributions, must be made anonymously through the FEC. Of the Patriot dollars given to voters to allocate, they propose $25 going to presidential campaigns, $15 to Senate campaigns, and $10 to House campaigns.

The second aspect of the system increases some private donation limits, but all contributions must be made anonymously through the FEC. This way, when a contributor make a donation to a campaign they send their money to the FEC indicating which campaign they want it to go to. The FEC masks the money and distributes it directly to the campaigns in randomized chunks over a number of days.

The beauty of such a system is if candidates do not know for sure who is contributing to their campaigns they are unlikely to take unpopular stances to court large donors which could jeopardize donations flowing from voter vouchers. Conversely, large potential donors will not be able to gain political access or favorable legislation in return for their contributions since they cannot prove to candidates the supposed extent of their financial support.

Public financing is available for qualifying candidates for President during both the primaries and the general election. Eligibility requirements must be fulfilled to qualify for a government subsidy and those that do accept government funding are usually subject to spending limits. The system is designed so that the Democratic or Republican candidates for President of the United States routinely qualify for funds, while excluding most other party candidates.

In 2008, Democrats Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, and Republicans Rudy Giuliani, Mitt Romney and Ron Paul decided not to take matching funds.  Republicans Tom Tancredo[4] & John McCain and Democrats Chris Dodd[5], Joe Biden[6] and John Edwards elected to take public financing.

By refusing matching funds, candidates are free to spend as much money as they can raise privately. We know the tremendous inequity between the money spent in the 2008 Presidential election.  The difference was mind boggling. I

In the 2008 Presidential Campaign Barack Obama raised over $745 Million dollars. John McCain was approximately one third of that.  Many questions were asked about where all the money was coming from in Barack Obama's campaign. How much was foreign money etc. luckily for him the Main Stream media protected him as their candidate and he did not have to offer explanations.

The current system is not fair and it is a breeding ground for greed and special interest. Campaign finance is a controversial issue, pitting concerns about free speech against concerns about corruption and inequality on the part of those who favor existing or further restrictions.

We think that there has to be limits put on the amount people can contribute as an individual or family and there should be a maximum amount that can be spent depending on the election. For instance, $2 million for a House of Representatives race, $4 Million for a Senate race and so on. Any contributions exceeding these limits would fall into the Social Security fund to pay it back for the amount used over the years.

There is much to be done in the manner of campaign finance reform. We think that some of the ideas being passed around are good but there needs to be more, much more.  What ideas do you have America! What would you like to see change?

The one thing we know with absolute certainty is the need for change because…… only when Congressmen have no special favors to sell will lobbyists stop trying to buy their votes and their souls.

Join with us America to protect your rights, your country, and your money. We are ready to defend our rights and tell the truth the liberal main stream media won’t tell you.  Comment here and email us at YourVoice@speaknowconservatives.org. Help us and be part of bringing our Great Christian country back.