The Fair Elections Now Act reached a milestone recently as the 100th member of the U.S. House of Representatives signed on to H.R.1826.
The bipartisan act, which was introduced by Representative John Larson, a Connecticut Democrat, and Walter Jones, a North Carolina Republican, offers an alternative to current campaign finance system by allowing candidates to run for Congress with small contributions and public grants. Its goal is to eliminate candidates’ reliance on big money contributors.
In response, Fair Elections Now Coalition – which includes groups such as the Brennan Center for Justice, Change Congress, Democracy Matters and U.S. Public Interest Research Group – released a statement suggesting the ongoing healthcare, energy and financial regulation debates are exposing the extent to which the legislative process in the U.S. has become dominated by powerful interest groups spending millions of dollars lobbying in Washington.
“It’s apparent now more than ever that the only way to have a healthy, balanced debate is to free members of Congress from the constant pressures of fundraising,” it stressed.
H.R.1826 provides a public grant to those who qualify by collecting a set number of contributions in amounts of up to $100. Once qualified, the candidates can continue to raise small contributions that are matched on a four-to-one basis up to a limit.
The Senate has also introduced its version of the Fair Elections Now Act (S. 752) which is sponsored by Assistant Senate Majority Leader Dick Durbin of Illinois and Senator Arlen Specter, a Pennsylvania Democrat.
Originally Published at NewsBlarg
nice!
What?!
“free members of Congress from the constant pressures of fundraising”
That sounds kind of like saying “Hey, if you just give us the money we won’t have to worry about getting it ourselves!”
Of COURSE politicians are on board with that!
The reason lobbyists spend millions is to get billions through earmarks, tax breaks, and laws that favor them.
We can reduce the earmarks by forcing the government to stop living on credit(debt) and spend only what they have. If they did that, they wouldn’t be able to give earmarks to every lobbyist that came their way, they would have to be very selective.
The Fair Tax(my favorite) or the Flat Tax would completely stop the lobbying that is done in order to get the IRS tax code changed in that particular lobbyists favor.
Elimination of those two candy jars would really put a damper on campaign money that flows from lobbyists to politicians. That’s why it won’t ever happen, the politicians want that money from lobbyists.
Members of Congress need a constant flow of campaign money. Every opportunity they have to give or withhold government money and government favor (whether it is a tax break or a weapons program or subsidies for Wall Street) is an opportunity to get campaign money from an individual or a company or union PAC. It’s partly a kickback scheme and it’s partly extortion and it is one of the reasons that candidates in favor of small government keep getting elected but the government keeps getting bigger and bigger without interruption.
This bill will not only allow public funding for members of Congress but for challengers, too. Right now, incumbents get so much special interest money that few citizens even consider running against them and very, very few ever beat them.