Bardo
26th January 2011, 19:12
Legislation that is expected to reach the House floor this week would give corporations and other large donors a greater role in presidential elections by dismantling the public campaign finance system.
Rep. Tom Cole (R-OK) introduced a bill that would end public financing of presidential elections on the anniversary of the infamous Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission decision. The bill, HR 359 (http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h112-359), would eliminate the Presidential Election Campaign Fund and the Presidential Primary Matching Payment Account. It currently has 18 cosponsors, all of whom are Republican.
"A vote for HR 359 is a great way to tell the American people that you want to give corporations more power over our government rather than make democracy work for ordinary Americans," David Arkush, director of Public Citizen's Congress Watch division, warned in a prepared statement (http://www.citizen.org/pressroom/pressroomredirect.cfm?ID=3265).
The Citizens United decision overturned nearly a century of restrictions on campaign spending, allowing corporations, unions and other groups to spend unlimited amounts on political campaigns without having to identify themselves. In a 5-4 decision last year, the US Supreme Court ruled that restrictions on spending amounted to a violation of First Amendment rights.
The decision allowed a torrential downpour of private dollars (http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2010/10/groups-spending-elections-dwarfs-parties/) into the November midterm elections, with interest groups spending over $80 million on the elections, up from just $16 million in 2006.
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/01/gop-aims-expand-power-special-interests-elections/
Plutocracy here we come :closedeyes:
Rep. Tom Cole (R-OK) introduced a bill that would end public financing of presidential elections on the anniversary of the infamous Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission decision. The bill, HR 359 (http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h112-359), would eliminate the Presidential Election Campaign Fund and the Presidential Primary Matching Payment Account. It currently has 18 cosponsors, all of whom are Republican.
"A vote for HR 359 is a great way to tell the American people that you want to give corporations more power over our government rather than make democracy work for ordinary Americans," David Arkush, director of Public Citizen's Congress Watch division, warned in a prepared statement (http://www.citizen.org/pressroom/pressroomredirect.cfm?ID=3265).
The Citizens United decision overturned nearly a century of restrictions on campaign spending, allowing corporations, unions and other groups to spend unlimited amounts on political campaigns without having to identify themselves. In a 5-4 decision last year, the US Supreme Court ruled that restrictions on spending amounted to a violation of First Amendment rights.
The decision allowed a torrential downpour of private dollars (http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2010/10/groups-spending-elections-dwarfs-parties/) into the November midterm elections, with interest groups spending over $80 million on the elections, up from just $16 million in 2006.
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/01/gop-aims-expand-power-special-interests-elections/
Plutocracy here we come :closedeyes: