Word: campaign
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...subject all political spending to a shareholder vote, which would presumably cause such spending to grind to a halt. Yale professors Bruce Ackerman and Ian Ayres suggest denying federal contracts to corporations that engage in political spending, and Ackerman and Congressman David Wu have formulated a bill giving $50 campaign contribution vouchers to every taxpayer to balance out corporate influence...
...prospects vary widely. Both of Lessig’s are subject to supermajority requirements in the Senate–67 votes for an amendment, and 60 to break a filibuster on public financing–where minority leader Mitch McConnell has been a staunch opponent of all campaign finance reform efforts, and so chances are dim. Same for Ackerman and Wu’s bill, the cost of which should alienate swing Republicans. Van Hollen and Schumer’s and Ackerman and Ayres’ more modest suggestions could attract more support, though it’s always safer...
...question is whether they’re enough. Experts have for years tried and failed to prove a relationship between the strength of campaign finance laws and levels of corruption and public trust in government. Some of this is no doubt due to the subtleties of how money infiltrates the political process. Outright corruption, though real, is less common than implicit quid pro quos or even looser expectations of reciprocity. However, if the bills have failed to reduce corruption, which is easier to study and identify, how likely is it that they have significantly clamped down on means of influence...
...time, then, to stop money from entering at a different point in the process. As its name suggests, campaign finance reform is premised on the notion that legislators’ actions are largely influenced by who donates to their reelection committees. This is true, but not the whole story. Another equally troubling entry point for corporate influence is in the lawmaking process itself. Interested parties do not merely participate by donating to campaign committees. They hire lobbyists to argue their case with Congress by session. These lobbyists do not convince just due to force of their arguments. Sometimes, yes, they...
Limiting this phenomenon, perhaps by banning staffers from registering as lobbyists until their member has left Congress, has not been tried, and I cannot predict its effectiveness. But with campaign-based reform faltering, a new method is needed to prevent corporate cash from further eroding our democracy...