- According to the article, Republicans will receive and spend more than $100 million from anonymous donors, an outrageous sum that has been loudly criticized by the Democrats.
- However, in 2004, Democrats set up campaign groups that fronted for labor unions and big dollar individual contributors, which contributed more than $150 million to the Democrats.
- Ms. Marcus reported that the "hapless" Federal Election Commission levied only a $1.3 million fine on this 2004 outrageous spending three years after the fact which, obviously, had no impact on election results. The $1.3 million fine is a pittance of a slap on the hand, less than 1% of the amount collected.
- According to the article's conclusion: "When it comes to campaign cash, Democrats and Republicans have essentially the same position: when we have more to spend because of some loophole in the law, that's just fine; when the other side has more money, democracy is being subverted."
And while the numbers are high, the consequences are not. A 2006 U.S. News and World Report article by Dan Gilgoff showed that once a politician gets into office, the access to campaign funds almost always guarantees that as an incumbent, that politician will almost always stay in office. The title for the article was "A Fake Democracy? Why No One Has Much Chance of Toppling Congress's Incumbents." According to the article, in the 2004 elections, 98% of the incumbents retained their seats. You cannot be living in a democracy with that kind of re-election rate.
And financial situation seems to be getting worse. If you believe Mr. Giloff's numbers, in 2004, it cost about $1.5 million to run a House Of Representives campaign. Just six years later, that cost is now about $4 million, two and a half times larger than in 2004. The article concluded in 2006 that the increasing costs were stifling competition for political seats, creating a state of "partisan stasis."
How outrageous is all this insanity? Consider some simple math:
- The average Congressional office holder makes about $170,000 a year in salary. If you divide the campaign cost by the salary of the eventual winner you get a ratio of more than 23 to 1. In other words, for every salary dollar received, more than $23 will be spent to receive that $1. Makes no sense on the surface.
- If the average flu shot costs $10 per shot, then this $2 billion could have given two thirds of the country's population a free flu shot.
- If you had been alive since the birth of Christ and had spent $2,500 a day, every day from then until today, you still would have not spent $2 billion.
- According to a Parade Magazine article a few years ago, $2 billion could hire almost 5,000 teachers for a year, buy the health insurance for 50,000 American households and provide 83 million school lunches for needy children.
And the holier than though attitude of the Democrats in this election does not hold water. We all know that if any politician can get their hands on money to ensure their re-election, then principles go out the door. The Democrats are not mad because the Republicans are spending so much money. They are mad because they do not have that amount of money to spend this time around like they did in 2004. Their hypocrisy is incredible. No one says that any politician HAS to take the money presented to them for their election campaign. However, has there ever been an politician that not take money shown to them?
It is obvious from this insanity that our political class at all levels of government cannot control their urges to take any money at any time to ensure their comfortable positions in Congress and elsewhere. That is why the following suggestions from "Love My Country, Loathe My Government" are needed to take the money decisions out of their hands and structurally change the election process in this country:
- Step 6 - allow only individual Americans to contribute to election campaigns, not corporations, unions, PACs, etc. The U.S. Constitution guarantees freedom of speech for individuals, not organizations.
- Step 7 - allow only those affected by an election to contribute to their respective election campaigns. For example, only those living in a specific Kansas Congressional district should be allowed to contribute to those running for Congress from that election district, i.e. no outside money allowed.
- Step 8 - strengthen the Federal Elections Commission by staffing it with seasoned prosecutors, not political appointees, so that cronyism is not a factor in prosecuting election law violations.
- Step 18 - hold all of the Democratic and Republican primaries on the same day in order to shorten the election cycle that should also result in less money being spent on the primary election cycle.
- Step 39 - impose single term limits on all politicians which would remove a huge amount of corruption and money exchanging going on since a lame duck politician, which a single term politician would be, would not be given campaign funding for their re-election since it does not exist anymore.
And, a side benefit of these steps might be that some of this wasteful $2 billion would find its way back into society and be used for some more useful purposes, such as growing the economy, adding teachers to our schools, increasing the health benefits of our citizens, etc.
Our new book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at www.loathemygovernment.com. It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.
Please visit the following sites for freedom:
http://www.cato.org/
http://www.robertringer.com/
http://www.realpolichick.blogspot.com/
http://www.flipcongress2010.com/
http://www.reason.com/
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