Corruption and Political Campaign Finances

Like most Americans, I am deeply concerned by the incredible volume of money that funds political campaigns. It is absurd that a presidential campaign will spend several hundreds of millions of dollars to get a job that pays only $400,000 per year. This phenomenon is typical of political office.

Naturally, there is no way that this ready and steady flow of money cannot be accompanied by corruption. The funding of political campaign is an excellent opportunity for individuals, organizations, and businesses to buy the attention of a politician.

The laws are full of loopholes (intended and unintended). They allow wealthy candidates such as Bloomberg, Romney and Perot to buy their way into office while possibly better candidates have no chance of winning because they have no chance of ever matching the opponent's spending.

The playing filed favors the incumbents. I believe a substantial portion of incumbents need to be removed from office -- but I don't think term limits are the answer. Controlling the money and the power and influence it buys is the best answer to cleansing corruption from politics.

There have been many attempts by both legislatures and courts to regulate campaign finances and even advertising outside the control of a candidate. However, as usual, politicians and judges often mess things up more than they fix them. Such is the case with campaign finances.

No campaign finance law has ever helped to control corruption in politics, to move unworthy incumbents out of office, or to protect the rights of the people. As with other laws, only honest people obey the law anyway.

Here is my humble solution:

• Ban all anonymous contributions -- require full verification of the identity of each and every donor.
• Ban all financing and advertising which can be connected in any way to foreign nations, foreign-owned or controlled businesses, citizens of foreign nations, etc. -- especially illegal aliens or organizations thereof.
• Require all individuals, organizations, businesses, and labor unions to disclose in their political advertising how much of their company is controlled by foreign nationals, or if this isn’t possible, how much of their financing or control comes from foreign nationals.
• Ban all Political Action Committees (PACs) controlled by, or behalf of, any group of politicians or candidates other than registered political parties.
• Limit all Political Action Committees controlled by, or on behalf of, any individual politician or candidate to managing and expending resources solely for that politician's own campaigns. All resources not used by any candidate's campaign and PAC must be donated to charity within 90 days of the conclusion of each campaign season.
• Allow unlimited contributions from US citizens, legal US residents, US organizations, US businesses, and US labor unions.
• Limit each candidate's spending of personal plus immediate family funds to be no more than the annual salary of the elected office he is seeking.
• Limit the total campaign spending by any candidate plus that of his PAC to be no more than 10 times the annual salary of the elected office he is seeking. All funds in excess of this amount must immediately be donated to charity.
• Limit the total campaign spending by a political party on behalf of a candidate to be no more than 50 times the annual salary of the elected office he is seeking. All funds in excess of this amount must immediately be donated to charity.
• Limit the total campaign spending by any entity other than a political party or candidate on behalf of a candidate to be no more than 5 times the annual salary of the elected office he is seeking. No entity may establish any alter ego nor provide resources to any other entity to circumvent this provision. All funds in excess of this amount must immediately be donated to charity.
• Mandate full and immediate public disclosure of every donation and its donor. All contributions must be to a specific candidate's campaign or to a registered political party.
• Require all individuals, organizations, businesses, and labor unions to certify, before giving or spending in elections, that they are in compliance with these requirements.

Recommend book:

Glenn Beck: Common Sense