campaign finance reform

How To Choose? So Many Constitutional Amendments....

Greg Colvin — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 09:43:53 -0500

There is a growing movement of people fed up with corporations-as-persons, money-as-speech, elections-for-sale in America. They are ready to amend the US Constitution as the only sure way to reverse the Supreme Court’s decisions in Citizens United v. FEC and Buckley v. Valeo. But what’s the best amendment? Sanders/Deutch or Udall/Sutton? Move To Amend or Free Speech for People?

Here are twelve questions to put the choice of language in an analytical framework. Every drafter should be able to answer them.

1. What is the main purpose? Is it to drive the big money, from all sources, out of elections? Or is it to abolish corporate personhood?

2. If none of the rights extended to corporations are still protected by the Constitution, what would the consequences be -- outside of the realm of elections?

3. What would happen the day after the amendment was adopted? Would corporate and business spending in elections stop immediately or would legislation and litigation be required?

4. What kinds of legal entities does the amendment apply to?

a. business corporations
b. nonprofit corporations
c. labor unions
d. other forms of organization (associations, trusts, LLCs, partnerships)
e. all of the above

5. How should the campaign spending of individuals (including candidates) be regulated?

a. no limits on personal spending
b. authorize Congress and the states to set limits
c. set dollar limits in the Constitution
d. prohibit completely

6. Should all campaign contributions and expenditures be publicly disclosed? Or should Congress and the states allow small donations to be anonymous? In view of all that secret money that flows through nonprofit groups for political “issue ads,” how do we force them to disclose their sources?

7. Should public financing of campaigns be required, permitted, or prohibited?

8. Does the amendment cover both candidate elections and public votes on ballot measures?

9. Are all levels of government covered: federal, state, city, town, and county?

10. Is any special wording needed to protect freedom of the press?

11. Should other subjects be covered in the amendment, such as making election day a holiday, shortening the campaign season, simplifying voter registration, requiring paper ballots, addressing voter disenfranchisement?

12. Should there be two or more amendments to carry different aspects of these issues, or one unified proposal?

…and of course, is the language as brief and clear as it can be?

My answers would be:

1. Drive big money out of elections.
2. Takes a lot of legal study to be sure about this.
3. Immediate effect.
4. e. - although the business entities are the biggest danger.
5. b. – use legislation to set limits.
6. Legislatively, force disclosure of all large donors whose money is used for politics.
7. Permit.
8. Both.
9. All.
10. No.
11. No.
12. One, though some days I think abolishing corporate personhood should be separate.

This is the sixth piece I’ve written this year on this subject. In January I proposed a simple version: only citizens can vote, only citizens should finance campaigns. In April I compared the main alternatives offered at that time. In November I pointed out the problems with a single focus on corporate personhood, followed by two blogs praising Deutch and then Sanders for what they introduced -- as the best so far. (Click on my name above to access them.)

But what I really think we need is for all the proponents to get their ideas out on the table, have a big summit conference, test each approach using criteria such as these twelve, and forge a unified amendment.

MadisonWorld: A Future Where Corporations Have Human Rights ... And Humans Don't

Richard Eskow — Fri, 11 Mar 2011 01:24:57 -0500

Today we saw state troopers in Madison tearing peaceful protesters out of their own capitol after the Senate voted to deprive them of their rights. Video footage of that event should come with a label: Brought to you by the State of Wisconsin, a wholly owned subsidiary of Koch Industries.

Right now Wisconsin is serving as the prototype for United States 2.0, a newly reconstituted nation where corporations have all rights of personhood without any of the responsibilities - and people have all the duties of personhood without any of the rights.

Welcome to your future. They're preparing it for you right now in America's heartland.

The Madison Experiment

Think of Madison as a laboratory where the nation's billionaires are field-testing the roll-out of their latest product: a quasi-democratic state where government exists exclusively to execute decisions made by corporate interests. The purpose of any field test is to find the bugs in any product before it goes into wider distribution. Maybe the team was a little surprised at the level of pushback they got. But hey,that's what tests are for.

Whenever human rights are being revoked, the fail-safe mechanism is always the use of excessive force. Madison's no exception. As you watch the video of demonstrators below, listen as the onlookers ask the troopers why peaceful citizens are being removed if they haven't committed a crime. Nobody answers.

The First Amendment of the United States Constitution provides "the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances." The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted by the United Nations in 1948, states that "Everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association." But human rights are incompatible with the self-interests of the corporate state. That's why we're seeing these steps to strip people of their rights to assemble and negotiate on their own behalf.

It's also why Gov. Walker is violating the state's own open government law by refusing to release his Administration's emails. One of the tests being conducted in Madison is this one: How far can a government go in stripping people of their rights? The citizens of Wisconsin are part of the experiment.

So are you.

But do I really believe that there's an experiment underway? Do I think of Madison as if it were a scene from a science-fiction movie, where hidden forces are guiding events and studying the outcomes? No ... and yes. There's no secret control room beneath a mountain or in orbit around the planet, of course ... at least I don't think there is ... but Wisconsin's legislation was drafted in corporate (and especially Koch) funded groups where legislators were indoctrinated into the corporate mode of governance, and the sales pitch behind it was honed by paid consultants and advisors. And although that "control room' may not exist, a lot of people are very, very interested in the outcome. You should be, too.

My friends at the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies[1] like to have stimulating debates about questions like "Will artificial intelligences be treated as 'persons' in the future?" Right now the question seems to be, will people?

I, Corporation

Corporations, on the other hand, don't need to worry.

Wisconsin's Republican government owes a deep debt of gratitude to its corporate benefactors. Those corporate interests, in turn, can thank the Supreme Court's Citizens United ruling for giving them the ability to inject unlimited capital into an election. That decision was based on a radical expansion of a legal theory called "corporate personhood."

United States law has recognized that corporations can hold limited "personal" rights, especially the right to enter into contracts, for nearly two hundred years. But Citizens United,which was crafted in right-wing think tanks, radically extended the "personhood" concept by casting two new ideas in stone: First, that corporations have the right of "free speech," and second, that money is a form of speech.

Environmental advocates tried to grant limited personhood to animals and even plants a while back, in an attempt to protect the environment. There was even a legal essay called "Should Trees Have Standing?" The idea never went anywhere. Let's face it: Trees can't throw around the kind of money the Koch Brothers have at their disposal.

Corporations now hold one of the dearest human rights a citizen possesses - that of free speech - with none of the responsibilities. No corporation has even been "jailed" for manslaughter, or felony theft, or reckless endangerment. The Wall Street crime wave that wrecked the economy led to no criminal indictments for bankers or banks - just minor financial penalties that were borne by corporate stockholders.

America's leading financial executives - prominent figures like JPMorgan Chase's Jamie Dimon and GE's Jeffrey Immelt - have presided over corporations that are serial lawbreakers, with rap sheets so long they couldn't get bonded to mop floors. But there's no "three strikes and you're out" law for corporations.

If there were, Koch Industries would have been disbanded long ago. It's been on a multi-year crime spree that would have resulted in a prison sentence if it had been committed by a human. The list is impressive: A "guilty" plea to charges that it illegally dumped aviation fuel into Mississippi River wetlands and dumped a million gallons of wastewater laced with ammonia into the Mississippi River A half-million-dollar fine after a jury found it guilty of stealing oil from Native American lands and repeatedly lying about it. A fine for pipeline spills in Texas that leaked more than three million gallons of oil. A $20 million settlement for covering up violations of environmental regulations. A $25 million fine for improperly taking too much oil from Federal and Native American land. A $200,000 penalty for selling crude oil to a foreign country without the proper authorization. A $1.7 million penalty from the EPA for more than 680 violations of water, air, hazardous waste, emergency planning and preparedness, and pesticide regulations.

Human felons can't even vote, but felonious companies can buy elections—no matter how many crimes they've committed.

Funny, isn't it? As soon as the Democrats gained power a case is filed that makes it to the Supreme Court, overturning campaign finance limits. Maybe that was a happy accident for corporate America, a lucky break at just the right time. But billionaires become billionaires by making their own luck, not by waiting for fortune to smile upon them.

We now know that the Koch brothers like to host meetings with fellow right-wingers to "review strategies for combating the multitude of public policies that threaten to destroy America as we know it." And we know a couple of Supreme Court justices attended the Kochs' latest meeting. ("Citizens United" was a 5-4 victory for the corporations.)

Of course, it could just be coincidence.

America Inc: The Organization Chart

Next week Republican politicians from Wisconsin will be attending a lobbyist fundraiser in Washington where they'll collect fat checks and no doubt receive their marching orders. This gala event is being organized by BGR Group, the lobbying outfit set up by Haley Barbour before he accepted a demotion to the field - it's called "taking one for the team" - and became the Republican Governor of Mississippi. Once in office he was surprisingly receptive to Federal aid after the BP oil spill, even though studiously avoided blaming corporate criminal BP for the damage it caused to his state.

BGR Group has represented big banks and energy companies, and has helped make life easier for a host of corporate clients. In true Beltway fashion, it proudly boasts that it's "bipartisan."

Meanwhile the Koch Brothers have "quietly" opened a government relations/lobbying office in Madison. And why not? It's important to keep a close eye on your investments. The Koch Brothers insist they're just good citizens worried about "policies that could destroy America as we know it." But then, one of their http://www.kochfertilizer.com/ ">corporate websites

tells us that the Koch empire is "one of the world's largest producers and marketers of ... fertilizers."

No disagreement here.

Sacrilege

When the Wisconsin State Senate convened its 2011 session, the invocation by Pastor Doug Lebsack of Chippewa Falls included these words:

Our Heavenly Father and Our God,

... God, you are the One who ordains all human authority ... there is no governing authority established outside of your divine authority. These senators who are honorably congregated here today gather at your pleasure ... we pray that you would grant them the wisdom to govern us with integrity, compassion, and courage ... we need Senators who will stand as advocates for the poor and the needy, and the downcast, and as encouragers for our business people, our educators, and our civic leaders.

To serve the entire constituency of our state well, we ask that you would grant our senators the gift of humility. May they see the power that has been placed within their grasp, yet may the wield that power unselfishly for the benefit of the people they serve ... We are thirsty for public servants who overflow with great character. In the midst of mounting pressure, we pray that our senate would radiate the light of knowledge and understanding that flows from your eternal throne ...

In your holy name we pray, Amen.

Were these Republicans even listening? I wonder if Pastor Doug knows that these same Senators have now committed the ultimate sin against God. They've uplifted an artificial creature—the Corporation—and placed it on the same level as God's creation, Humanity. I'm no theologian, but that sounds like blasphemy to me.

You know what else seems odd? The Governor and most of his senatorial colleagues claim to follow God incarnated as a carpenter—in other words, as a man with a trade, a working man. If you believe in Divine wisdom, that can't be an accident. And yet look at the way they treat working people—taking away their rights, hauling them out of the Capitol building. Maybe these self-styled Christians missed Bible study on the day they studied this verse.

One Dollar, One Vote

The reclusive oil billionaire H. L. Hunt reportedly thought that every American's right to vote should be weighted based on how much money he had. Hunt's dream is about to become a reality.

Unions are one of the few bulwarks against corporate corruption in politics. They can sit at the table with politicians and use their leverage to counteract the corporations' influence, serving as a voice for that vast majority of Americans who are employees and not wealthy business owners. That's the real reason the corporate oligarchy is targeting the unions. They've been pretty blatant about their real goals in Wisconsin, with Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald saying things like this:

"(If) the money is not there under the auspices of the unions, certainly what you're going to find is President Obama is going to have a much difficult, much more difficult time getting elected and winning the state of Wisconsin."

They want the money that drives political power to flow from one source, and one source only: America's corporations. And Madison is the proving ground for destroying any organized opposition to their corporatist agenda.

The Wisconsin state motto is "Forward," and the rest of the nation may very well follow. But which way are they going? Their state is being used as the proving ground for United States 2.0. What kind of future are the Governor and his fellow Republicans leading us all toward? The answer can be found in what someone said a long, long time ago:

Follow the money.

_____________________

[1] I'm a "Affiliated Scholar" at the IEET. That's a vague, unpaid affiliation that basically says we're friends and respect one another. (At least that's my interpretation.)

This post was produced as part of the Curbing Wall Street project and the Strengthen Social Security campaign.

Crony Capitalism: Wall Street's Favorite Politicians

Zach Carter — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 17:02:59 -0400

A full 90 members of Congress who voted to bailout Wall Street in 2008 failed to support financial reform reining in the banks that drove our economy off a cliff. But when you examine campaign contribution data, it's really no surprise that these particular lawmakers voted to mortgage our economic future to Big Finance: This election cycle, they've raked in over $48.8 million from the financial establishment. Over the course of their Congressional careers, the figure swells to a massive $176.9 million.

The complete list of these Crony Capitalists is below, along with the money they pulled in from Big Finance, according to data compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics (opensecrets.org). The career data goes back to 1989. Of the 69 House members who voted with Wall Street on both the bailout and financial reform, 60 are Republicans, while nine are Democrats. All 21 Senators who voted with Wall Street on both issues are Republicans, and Republicans raked in over 90 percent of the total campaign contributions. Here's a chart showing Wall Street's total contributions to this crowd for the 2010 cycle, by political party:

And here's one showing total Wall Street contributions over the course of their careers:

These aren't the only politicians carrying water for Wall Street—only the most flagrant. Some of the bank lobby's savviest servants on Capitol Hill do their dirty work early in the legislative process. They push through technical amendments and deploy complex procedural tricks to defang a bill, but when the final vote comes, they can still create the appearance of taking a stand against Wall Street's interests. Rep. Melissa Bean, D-Ill., is a master of this technique, and Tea Party favorite Sen. Scott Brown, R-Mass., was able to claim credit for voting in favor of reform after demanding—and receiving—a host of big bank giveaways in return for his vote.

Nor are Republicans the only recipients of Wall Street largesse. Bean, for instance, has pulled in over $773,000 from Wall Street in the 2010 cycle alone, while working overtime to carve loopholes into new consumer protections (she's scored $2.4 million over the course of her Congressional career). And the Democratic leadership has received millions as well.

When it comes to dealing out economic damage, no special interest group has been able to wreak more havoc that Big Finance. After inflating an $8 trillion housing bubble and sparking a recession that has cost the economy over 8 million jobs, public pressure to crack down on Wall Street was intense. And the public is still clamoring for Wall Street accountability—after two years in office, the Wall Street reform bill remains the most popular legislative effort championed by President Barack Obama, and getting tough on Big Finance has been a reliable re-election strategy for embattled incumbents.

But harnessing the Wall Street beast proved a tortuously long and difficult process, taking nearly two years despite its economic urgency. And while the bill that Congress approved this year has plenty of virtues, many of the most critical reforms were simply not addressed by the legislation. The too-big-to-fail financial behemoths that taxpayers bailed out in 2008 are even bigger today, banks can still gamble with taxpayer money, and the foreclosure crisis continues to ravage neighborhoods across the country. Until these issues are addressed, the U.S. economy will remain beholden to Wall Street's bonus-crazed whims.

But if you follow the money, it's obvious why so much work remains to be done on financial reform. This year alone, Wall Street spent a staggering $251 million fighting financial reform. According to a separate analysis of campaign contributions performed by Public Citizen, lawmakers who voted with Wall Street on both the bailout and reform received nearly triple the campaign cash of those who opposed Wall Street (figures in the Public Citizen study don't correspond to those I've compiled, as Public Citizen examined contributions from 2007 through July of 2010).

Despite the popularity of Wall Street reform, 90 members of Congress didn't even want to publicly pretend to support reining in almost universally reviled banks. When you're trying to decide which bums to throw out in November, here's one place to start. These members of Congress are okay with setting up economic calamities, and they don't mind paying for them with your tax dollars.

Here's how Wall Street's contributions break down among Wall Street's 21 Senate Cronies. For 2010:

For their careers:

And here are all of the Cronies, along with their Wall Street hauls:

Senator	2010 Wall Street Cash	Career Wall Street Cash
Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN)	$1,600,000	$4,900,000
Sen. Robert Bennett (R-UT)	$1,500,000	$2,600,000
Sen. Kit Bond (R-MO)	$333,600	$3,300,000
Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC)	$1,500,000	$3,300,000
Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-GA)	$2,500,000	$3,500,000
Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK)	$451,700	$1,200,000
Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN)	$3,100,000	$3,300,000
Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX)	$3,200,000	$4,700,000
Sen. John Ensign (R-NV)	$1,300,000	$2,600,000
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC)	$1,100,000	$2,000,000
Sen. Judd Gregg (R-NH)	$233,200	$1,100,000
Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT)	$1,400,000	$2,600,000
Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX)	$1,400,000	$4,700,000
Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-GA)	$1,500,000	$4,200,000
Sen. John Kyl (R-AZ)	$2,800,000	$3,800,000
Sen. Dick Lugar (R-IN)	$412,200	$2,500,000
Sen. John McCain (R-AZ)	$947,600	$34,000,000
Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY)	$4,300,000	$5,300,000
Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK)	$268,200	$909,700
Sen. John Thune (R-SD)	$1,600,000	$3,900,000
Sen. George Voinovich (R-OH)	$435,200	$2,800,000
21 Republicans
0 Democrats
Senate Total	$31,881,700	97,209,700

House Member	2010 Wall Street Cash	Career Wall Street Cash
Rep. Rodney Alexander, R-La.	$106,500	$422,300
Rep. Spencer Bachus, R-Ala.	$611,600	$4,400,000
Rep. Gresham Barrett, R-S.C.	$20,400	$806,700
Rep. Marion Berry, D-Ark.	$24,900	$663,700
Rep. Judy Biggert, R-Ill.	$395,000	$1,900,000
Rep. Roy Blunt, R-Mo.	$1,200,000	$3,800,000
Rep. John Boehner, R-Ohio	$1,300,000	$3,700,000
Rep. Jo Bonner, R-Ala.	$90,400	$702,200
Rep. Mary Bono Mack, R-Calif.	$190,000	$733,400
Rep. John Boozman, R-Ark.	$257,700	$491,000
Rep. Dan Boren, D-Okla.	$123,100	$722,200
Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Va.	$92,700	$1,400,000
Rep. Charles Boustany Jr, R-La.	$226,300	$934,600
Rep. Kevin Brady, R-Texas	$157,000	$840,500
Rep. Henry Brown, R-S.C.	$35,700	$494,000
Rep. Vernon Buchanan, R-Fla.	$336,800	$1,400,000
Rep. Ken Calvert, R-Calif.	$180,300	$940,300
Rep. Dave Camp, R-Mich.	$588,000	$1,700,000
Rep. John Campbell, R-Calif.	$413,400	$1,200,000
Rep. Eric Cantor, R-Va.	$2,100,000	$4,400,000
Rep. Mike Castle, R-Del.	$749,100	$3,200,000
Rep. Howard Coble, R-N.C.	$23,400	$502,500
Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla.	$110,000	$686,000
Rep. Mike Conaway, R-Texas	$161,500	$711,800
Rep. Ander Crenshaw, R-Fla.	$86,100	$717,000
Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas	$90,600	$606,900
Rep. Charlie Dent, R-Pa.	$177,900	$881,000
Rep. Chet Edwards, D-Texas	$324,200	$1,900,000
Rep.Vernon Ehlers, R-Mich.	$8,500	$292,200
Rep. Jo Ann Emerson, R-Mo.	$143,900	$904,400
Rep. Mary Fallin, R-Okla	($1,000)	$340,700
Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen, R-N.J.	$86,200	$840,300
Rep. Jim Gerlach, R-Pa.	$251,600	$1,800,000
Rep. Kay Granger, R-Texas	$140,000	$1,100,000
Rep. Wally Herger, R-Calif.	$171,500	$1,100,000
Rep. Peter Hoekstra, R-Mich.	($1,000)	$300,600
Rep. Bob Inglis, R-S.C.	0	$572,800
Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y.	$173,900	$1,600,000
Rep. Mark Kirk, R-Ill.	$1,900,000	$4,200,000
Rep. John Kline, R-Minn	$170,900	$989,100
Rep. Jerry Lewis, R-Calif.	$31,800	$748,000
Rep. Daniel E. Lungren, R-Calif.	$147,700	$622,500
Rep. Howard McKeon, R-Calif.	$132,100	$1,100,000
Rep. Gary Miller, R-Calif.	$144,500	$902,000
Rep. Harry Mitchell, D-Ariz.	$130,900	$558,000
Rep. Sue Myrick, R-S.C.	$93,600	$1,200,000
Rep. Soloman Ortiz, D-Texas	$40,200	$381,700
Rep. George Radanovich, R-Calif.	$24,900	$462,000
Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Ala.	$128,200	$1,000,000
Rep. Hal Rogers, R-Ky.	$50,200	$468,000
Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla.	$127,000	$986,000
Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis.	$531,500	$1,900,000
Rep. Jean Schmidt, R-Ohio	$121,900	$519,700
Rep. John Shadegg, R-Ariz.	$39,700	$1,200,000
Rep. Bill Shuster, R-Pa.	$30,700	$403,600
Rep. Mike Simpson, R-Ind.	$20,500	$266,900
Rep. Ike Skelton, D-Mo.	$112,500	$524,200
Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas	$258,900	$1,300,000
Rep. Mark Souder, R-Ind.	$40,500	$405,800
Rep. Zack Space, D-Ohio	$169,300	$476,300
Rep. John Sullivan, R-Okla.	$79,200	$494,800
Rep. Lee Terry, R-Neb.	$202,600	$1,400,000
Rep. Mac Thornberry, R-Texas	$42,500	$603,400
Rep. Patrick Tiberi, R-Ohio	$555,500	$2,800,000
Rep. Fred Upton, R-Mich.	$81,700	$929,400
Rep. Greg Walden, R-Ore.	$180,700	$732,400
Rep. Zach Wamp, R-Tenn.	0	$715,700
Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C.	$155,500	$580,200
Rep. Frank Wolf, R-Va.	$90,400	$1,100,000
60 Republicans	$15,873,400	$72,443,800
9 Democrats	$1,108,400	$7,233,000
House Total	$16,981,800	$79,676,800