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January 21, 2003

State of the (Government for Sale) Union

The accompanying picture is a poster from Public Campaign, one of the only organizations promoting real campaign finance reform. As they write:

"Some people think it's more important to give a big campaign contribution than to vote--that it's "the American way" to buy access and influence with big money--that it's OK if public policy is sold to the highest bidder. Some even think that the only real democracy is in the marketplace, where we all supposedly vote with our dollars.

The poster photo captures the real "State of the Union," showing Bush speaking to the merged floors of Congress and the stock market--or what we like to call the trading floor of Congress, where politicians exchange our tax dollars for campaign contributions from wealthy special interests. (This poster has been in the works for months; we honestly had no idea Bush would pitch his entire new "economic stimulus" plan directly at the stock market. Honest!)."

I actually think most "campaign finance reform" is wasted or even pernicious, especially the McCain-Feingold law. See my column here. Note in the graph on the link page of giving by the richest americans how little was being given in the form of the vilified "soft money" and how much was in the "hard money" category (now enabled to be doubled to $2000 per person by McCain-Feingold).

But Public Campaign is promoting public financing from the grassroots, real reform. So check out their site and support them in your state.

Posted by Nathan at January 21, 2003 11:25 AM

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