Posts tagged politics
Holding Politicians Accountable
What the American people have said–and by the way, I hear this not just from progressives, from conservatives, from others–and that is we can no longer continue to have a corrupt campaign finance system.
“Black Americans for a Better Future” Super PAC 100% Funded by Rich White Guys
New FEC filings show that all of the $417,250 in monetary donations to a Super PAC called “Black Americans for a Better Future” comes from conservative white businessmen — including $400,000, or 96 percent of the total, from white billionaire hedge fund manager Robert Mercer.
Sen. Bernie Sanders to the Des Moines Register: “Over the long term, I believe we need to move toward public funding of elections where anyone regardless of their income, regardless of their ideas can go forward and try to represent their constituencies
Hillary Clinton to the Des Moines Register: “ We also have to make sure all Americans have their voices heard. I’ve proposed a small-donor matching system for presidential and congressional elections, because you shouldn’t have to court huge donors to run for office, and you shouldn’t have to be a huge donor to make an impact.”
In an op-ed for CNN, on the sixth anniversary of the Supreme Court’s Citizens United v. FEC decision, Hillary Clinton writes:
It’s time to reclaim our democracy, reform our distorted campaign finance system and restore access to the ballot box in all 50 states.
That starts with reversing Citizens United. And that’s where my comprehensive plan to restore common sense to campaign finance begins. As president, I’ll appoint Supreme Court justices who recognize that Citizens United is bad for America. And if necessary, I’ll fight for a constitutional amendment that overturns it.
Meanwhile, we need more transparency in our politics. In the last three elections, more than $600 million in donations came from unknown, untraceable sources. That’s a lot of secret, unaccountable money. As president, I’ll require federal contractors to fully disclose their political spending. I’ll call on the Securities and Exchange Commission to require that publicly traded companies do the same. And I’ll fight for legislation requiring the disclosure of all significant political donations, no matter where they come from or who they benefit. Whether you’re a Democrat or a Republican, you should have to identify your donors.
We should also make it easier for Americans to run for elected office. You shouldn’t have to be rich or well-connected to serve. I’ll fight to create a robust small-donor matching system, so people with good ideas and a passion for public service know that they can run without having to court big donors and special interests.
Republicans Knock Ted Cruz Over “New York Values” Comment
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) recently criticized the “New York values” of fellow presidential candidate Donald Trump. Some of his opponents have responded:
Donald Trump (R-N.Y.): “When will @TedCruz give all the New York based campaign contributions back to the special interests that control him.”
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.): He raises money in New York and then criticizes New York values. He didn’t say that when he was there raising money. He says that in one state and then said something different in another. And time and again, it’s proven the sort of level of political calculation that voters are only starting to find out about now as the campaign gets deeper and more heated.”
Gov. Chris Christie (R-N.J.): “Ted Cruz has no problem with New York values when he’s collecting fundraising from New York hedge funds. Then New York values are just great, those people have great values I’m sure when they are writing him seven- and eight-figure checks. If he really has a problem with New York values, then he should return that money. And why doesn’t he?”
This CNN story just makes us angry:
The state of Florida is putting thousands of children with heart defects at risk, a group of cardiac doctors say, because of a change in policy that came after Tenet Healthcare contributed $200,000 to Florida Republicans.
In a widely publicized investigation in June, CNN revealed that a program at a Tenet hospital in Florida had failed to live up to state quality standards for children’s heart surgery.
Less than two months later, the state decided to get rid of those standards.
That decision came after the giant for-profit hospital chain made contributions to Republican Gov. Rick Scott and his party that dwarfed those the company made to candidates or parties in other states.
Rep. Steve Israel (D-N.Y.), former chair of House Democrats’ fundraising arm, has an op-ed in the New York Times on our broken campaign finance system. He also calls for solutions:
“Ultimately, however, the only solution is across-the-board changes in campaign finance. We need “who-gives-what” transparency in real time (not after the damage has been done), shareholder disclosure of all corporate political expenditures and public financing of congressional elections.”