Both Dems and GOP have been bought by big money: Anyone who wants to get elected to Congress has to raise money. This has gotten way out of hand since the Supreme Court decided in the...

Unintended Consequences

Anyone who wants to get elected to Congress has to raise money. This has gotten way out of hand since the Supreme Court decided in the Citizens United case that corporations were persons and money constituted free speech. There are several groups working to address this issue. If we could get enough people on both sides to agree that "big money" undermines the democratic process. Check out Move to Amend to see what others are doing.

MarvinSussman

Unintended Consequences wrote:

Anyone who wants to get elected to Congress has to raise money. This has gotten way out of hand since the Supreme Court decided in the Citizens United case that corporations were persons and money constituted free speech. There are several groups working to address this issue. If we could get enough people on both sides to agree that "big money" undermines the democratic process. Check out Move to Amend to see what others are doing.

How about a link?

Unintended Consequences

MarvinSussman wrote:

How about a link?

Still early here; brain not yet at full speed https://movetoamend.org

Lin19

Amend is right, but I still say that all e******ns should be publicly funded with no outside money. The whole e******n could be done for less than the cost of matching funds last time.
It will be a big fight with the super rich who control the government and the country are not going to give up easily. In fact I do not believe the people can amend the constitution themselves, as it should be, it requires either congress or state legislatures. The people are left out in the cold.

MarvinSussman

Lin19 wrote:

Amend is right, but I still say that all e******ns should be publicly funded with no outside money. The whole e******n could be done for less than the cost of matching funds last time.
It will be a big fight with the super rich who control the government and the country are not going to give up easily. In fact I do not believe the people can amend the constitution themselves, as it should be, it requires either congress or state legislatures. The people are left out in the cold.

I think the proposed amendment is too broad. It should simply say that corporations may voice an opinion in its own name but not directly contribute money to any political cause nor indirectly contribute money to individuals who directly contribute to any political cause.

Liberty Tree

Unintended Consequences wrote:

Anyone who wants to get elected to Congress has to raise money. This has gotten way out of hand since the Supreme Court decided in the Citizens United case that corporations were persons and money constituted free speech. There are several groups working to address this issue. If we could get enough people on both sides to agree that "big money" undermines the democratic process. Check out Move to Amend to see what others are doing.

Congress will never pass a law that will stop the big money flow. Congress will always leave loopholes to keep the cash cows producing.

LurkingTom Loc: North Dakota

democrat = the schoolyard bully that beats you up for your lunch money.

republican = the schoolyard bully that takes your lunch money to protect you from the other bully.

Dave Loc: Upstate New York

If one really wants to deal with the issue they need only to make very simple rules - only registered v**ers can make a contribution (without limit) and full disclosure of all contributions be made. You'll not likely see that rule because special interests supporting both parties would see this as their end.

Unintended Consequences

Liberty Tree wrote:

Congress will never pass a law that will stop the big money flow. Congress will always leave loopholes to keep the cash cows producing.

An amendment has to be proposed either by a 2/3 v**e of both houses of Congress, or else by a constitutional convention convened when the legislatures of 2/3 of the states so request. Since congress is not likely to cut off this money flow to their coffers, Move to Amend is working toward a constitutional convention. The action right now is getting this issue on the b****t of as many cities and states as possible. Wherever it has actually gotten on the b****t, people v**e overwhelmingly in favor of this amendment.

lpnmajor Loc: Arkansas

Unintended Consequences wrote:

An amendment has to be proposed either by a 2/3 v*... (show quote)

There will be a concerted effort to defeat any such amendment. There are 100's of millions of dollars at stake. The entire economy of DC would collapse. There are far more people making money off of lobbying and such than just politicians. These people WILL fight back and it won't be pretty.

Unintended Consequences

lpnmajor wrote:

There will be a concerted effort to defeat any such amendment. There are 100's of millions of dollars at stake. The entire economy of DC would collapse. There are far more people making money off of lobbying and such than just politicians. These people WILL fight back and it won't be pretty.

So should we sit back and wring our hands or get into the battle. I , for one, prefer the battle.

Blue Flu Loc: HHI

Unintended Consequences wrote:

Anyone who wants to get elected to Congress has to raise money. This has gotten way out of hand since the Supreme Court decided in the Citizens United case that corporations were persons and money constituted free speech. There are several groups working to address this issue. If we could get enough people on both sides to agree that "big money" undermines the democratic process. Check out Move to Amend to see what others are doing.

There was a region of a nation where only the very rich landowners called all the shots. They selected people for high office to represent them who would argue for and defend their collective interests. They effortlessly controlled newspapers which beat the drums as one espousing their point of view. The middle class throughout this region was a tiny minority while the bulk of the people were mostly illiterate farmers.
When this aristocracy felt that their power might be in jeopardy from the regions they didn't control they simply seceded.
Here it is over 150 years later and the rich still call the shots. They control things like banking, trade policy, the media and you guessed it.....Washington.
These folks are capable of doing anything to maintain their grip on wealth and power. Even start WW3.

Dave Loc: Upstate New York

According to everything I've ever read on the subject, the top earners pay a disportinate amount of personal income taxes - something like the top 10% pay close to 80% of the taxes collected. Yet I keep hearing people contend that the rich run the government. If that is true, these rich folks must have some real generosity in thier hearts - paying such a huge portion of the taxes while allowing almost half to pay none - and some of them even pay negative taxes.

MarvinSussman

Dave wrote:

According to everything I've ever read on the subject, the top earners pay a disportinate amount of personal income taxes - something like the top 10% pay close to 80% of the taxes collected. Yet I keep hearing people contend that the rich run the government. If that is true, these rich folks must have some real generosity in thier hearts - paying such a huge portion of the taxes while allowing almost half to pay none - and some of them even pay negative taxes.

Income taxes are not the only taxes. There are loads of regressive taxes. The question to ask is: who gets taxed more out of disposable income. A household with 2 kids that earns $50K annually has about $2,000 of disposable income and gets taxed over half of it. The same household with $500,000 income has $300,000 of disposable income and doesn't get taxed any where near half of it.

OldSchool Loc: Moving to the Red State of Utah soon!

Unintended Consequences wrote:

Anyone who wants to get elected to Congress has to raise money. This has gotten way out of hand since the Supreme Court decided in the Citizens United case that corporations were persons and money constituted free speech. There are several groups working to address this issue. If we could get enough people on both sides to agree that "big money" undermines the democratic process. Check out Move to Amend to see what others are doing.

Are you going to include unions in this reform? They're nothing but legal money launders...take money from members in the form of dues and funnel it to the Democrat Party.