Bob Haase’s Another Can Of Worms

Campaign Financing

I think it is time to consider changing campaign financing.  The cost of running a campaign is getting higher with each election. It is getting to the point that the candidate with the most money usually wins rather than  the one that may be most qualified. In April of this year, the Supreme Court in a 5-4 decision struck down the cap on the total amount of money any individual can contribute to federal candidates in a two year election cycle. Chief Justice Roberts who voted in favor said that leveling the playing field is not acceptable for government to do or the fact that this may influence access to elected officials or political parties through their large contributions.

Justice Breyer who voted against removing the cap said that “Where enough money calls the tune, the general public will not be heard”. This is the problem with campaign spending.  Each one of us has one vote regardless of how much money we have, but after the election our elected officials listen to the people that gave them the most money, not the general public they are suppose to represent.  With this removal of the cap on spending our elected officials will be pressured even more to listen to the influence of money instead of the majority of the people they represent.

You may wonder why more people don’t vote and don’t get involved in politics, and this may be one of the reasons.  More and more people are realizing that their vote is their only voice in how this country is run and after the election, big money will be making all the decisions and their voice means very little.  It is not what is right or wrong it is what big money wants.  The big money that is provided by rich individuals, large corporations, and large organizations to our candidates probably represents around 10 percent of the people and they are making the decisions for the rest of us.

 

A recent article in the Huffington Post indicated that the United States has a greater unequal distribution of wealth that any other of the developed nations.  In 2013 seventy five percent of the wealth in America was owned by 10 percent of the people.  Because of their money and campaign funding they can help control votes in elections, control votes on bills, and control the remaining 90 percent of the people.

What do you think?  Is this the way it was intended to be? Is this the way you want it to be?  As long as nobody cares… or voices their concern… it is the way it will be.  I would like to see campaign financing limited to $5,000 per person and the same limits applied to corporations, and organizations.  The remaining financing would come from taxes with everyone filing taxes paying the same amount such as $10.  This would help to level the playing field and the amount of influence any one person, corporation, or organization could have on our legislative system.  This will never happen because our Supreme Court ruled this as unconstitutional violating our first amendment.

Bob Haase is the host of “Outdoors Thursday” heard Thursday mornings at 9:10 a.m. on News-Talk 1450 KFIZ.