two House Democrats propose radical restructuring of the campaign finance system
Recent scandals involving Congressman Randy "Duke" Cunningham, former House Republican Majority Leader Tom DeLay, and super-lobbyist Jack Abramoff highlight the corruptive effect of money in politics. There is no lack of plans from Democrats and Republicans in Congress for "lobbying reform," but not much talk about doing something fundamental about the "pay-to-play" system that enables big corporations and wealthy individual contributors to get "access" to Congressmembers and their monumental financial and political decision-making power through their private financing of these Congressmembers' election campaigns.
On January 25, 2006, Congressmembers David Obey (D-WI) and Barney Frank (D-MA) announced their proposal for a "Grassroots Clean Campaign Act," intended, in the words of the title of Congressmember Frank's press release announcing this project, "to take private money out of politics [and] break [the] nexus of money in politics and restore public faith in Congress."
You can read this announcement by clicking here. You can access a one-page .pdf file outlining the main points of this proposed federal Clean Money/Clean Elections law by clicking here.
Subscribers to RollCall.com can read more about this legislation and the campaign to pass it by clicking here.
Everyone else can access a discussion of this "disruptive" development by clicking here.
To access an editorial on the Obey-Frank plan from the Progressive Populist web site entitled "'Reform' Needs Clean Elections," click here.
For more about Clean Money/Clean Elections, visit the Clean Money, Elections and Media World web site.
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