Posts tagged debate
Holding Politicians Accountable
The WonkBlog over at the Washington Post lists the five topics missing from this year’s debates. We’d have to agree with this one:
5) One of the biggest forces shaping our elections. This is the first election where both campaigns have refused public campaign financing, freeing them from the spending limits that come with them. The Supreme Court’s decision in Citizens United also paved the way for individuals, corporations, and unions to make unlimited independent expenditures. Such changes have effectively dismantled key campaign finance reforms and given the richest individuals and organizations more leeway to shape the political landscape. But since both candidates benefit from the issue, neither was inclined to talk about it, and no moderator asked about it.
And when I went to Israel as a candidate, I didn’t take donors, I didn’t attend fundraisers, I went to Yad Vashem, the — the Holocaust museum there, to remind myself the — the nature of evil and why our bond with Israel will be unbreakable.
We agree with Minnesota Vikings’ Chris Kluwe on tonight’s debate:
You know what I want to see debated? Campaign finance reform. Citizens United. Term limits. Tax reform. Cure the disease, not the symptoms.
— Chris Kluwe (@ChrisWarcraft)October 4, 2012
Debate Questions for Mitt Romney and Barack Obama on Money-in-Politics
Public Campaign has put together five questions for Mitt Romney and five questions for President Obama on money-in-politics for tonight’s debate.
Here are two of the questions:
- Governor Romney, you and your party have criticized President Obama for the Solyndra controversy and the “crony capitalism” you allege was behind it. How would you and a Romney administration ensure that no special treatment is given to the donors and bundlers who have raised millions of dollars for your campaign?
- President Obama, you created controversy when you criticized the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision that allowed unlimited corporate and union spending in our elections during in your State of the Union address in 2010. In your 2008 election, you said you wanted no outside spending on your behalf. Now you’ve given your blessing to super PACs on the Democratic side. Have you accepted that outside spending is just a feature of American elections that can’t be addressed?