Here's how we can have true reform for more honest elections:
Currently, a Congressman has to think continually throughout his term of office about raising money for the next campaign. He has to raise at least $3000 every day he's in office. Current limitations on donations (passed in the early 1970s) strictly limit the size of the donations. This forces the Congressman to follow the money on every vote he makes, every day in office! A few years ago, the National Taxpayers Union did a study of Congressmen's voting records and campaign contributions. They found linkage showing that 95% of all the votes made in Congress are bought and paid for by someone!
Here's the reform: Eliminate all limitations, and require that all registered candidates report EVERY contribution received to the Federal Election Commission. The FEC shall post all the information on its website for everyone to see. It will be listed in order of size of donation, to make it easy to identify his biggest supporters.
Furthermore, ban ALL "soft money"! All money given to a political party shall be spent on party operations. NONE of it may be spent on or transferred to any candidate's campaign. Plus, have all money given to any party reported to the public just like all the candidates' campaign contributions. This will eliminate most of the need for a party to seek donations. It will force all donations to be given directly to candidates. It makes ALL of the money traceable!
What all this does is, a Congressman will then have to "sell his vote" to only a few contributors (instead of being forced by the current restrictions to sell every vote). He will then be free to vote his conscience on all other issues. Furthermore, the facts about the few votes he does sell will be easily accessible for public scrutiny. (Not to mention his opponents' scrutiny!) The fact that he has to sell only a few votes will mean that the critical information won't be lost in a flood of data. He will be held accountable for any votes he does sell.
Also, if you still want to have the Presidential Election Fund, give the same amount of money to EVERY candidate that is on the ballot in at least 2/3 of the states. Also require that every candidate that is on the ballot in at least 2/3 of the states be included in the nationally televised debates before the election. These things will REALLY open up the debate! The current system uses taxpayer money to help the media monopoly drown out other voices. These measures will guarantee that other voices can be heard.
Also, see to it that states do not set impossibly high hurdles for candidates to be put on the ballot. Do a study of the percentage of the population whose signatures each state currently requires a candidate to obtain on the petition to be put on the ballot. Choose a percentage that excludes the states that are really out of line with the others, and require all states to require no larger a percentage than that number.
Also, have runoffs for every federal elected office. If no candidate gets a majority of the vote, have a runoff between the top two candidates. That will encourage people to vote for the person they REALLY want, instead of voting for someone only because they expect others to vote for him. Instead of begrudgingly voting for someone to defeat a candidate they strongly dislike, they will vote for the candidate they really want, to get him into the runoff. Instead of forcing people to vote for "the lesser of two evils," it gives them a chance to vote for someone they actually consider to be good!
More details
Here are more details about my proposal for true reform to close as many loopholes as possible. Continue taking data about contributors' employers. Take data on the employers of the contributor, the contributor's spouse, and any other employers of anyone else in the household with an income of at least $10,000 per year. Also take data on union memberships of any of the above. Also take data on the ownership of stock of at least $100,000 of any of the above. (Exclude mutual funds.) List on the FEC website the totals from ALL contributions (no matter how small) from employees (or members of their household) of the same company. Post the names of contributors who give at least $200 total to any campaign.
Make all this information easy to find on the FEC website. Have it all at http://fec.gov/contributions/ . That page shall have links to the pages for each of the fifty states (plus Guam, etc.). Each state's page shall have links to the pages for each election for each Senator and Congressman. (Each state's page shall also have a map showing the Congressional districts' boundaries, and a function where a voter can type in his zip code and be told which district he's in.) Each election page shall list the names of all registered candidates.
Each candidate shall have a page that lists, in order of amount, the total amount of money received from each company (either directly from the company, or from its associates (employees or stockholders), or from members of their households). If a contributor lists any union memberships, count the contribution as being from the union, instead of from the company.
Any company that has at least $500,000 gross annual income, and sells at least 1/3 of its goods or services to a single customer, shall be listed as a subheading under that customer's contribution.
This procedure will close as many loopholes as possible, without making the procedure unwieldy. Some loopholes remain (such as small businesses that are suppliers to other companies), but the exploitation of such loopholes would be so unwieldy as to be impractical on a significant scale.
True reform
This proposal is far superior to other proposals now being heavily promoted by the few big media corporations. Their proposals transfer ALL power to them! Their proposals ban ALL grassroots organizations from having a voice by contributing to campaigns. Their proposals give taxpayer money to only a pre-chosen elite of candidates. Their proposals replace the abuses of the current system with an even more abusive monopoly on political speech!
This proposal retains all of the rights of the people recongized by the Constitution, and does a very good job of holding elected federal officials accountable to the public. All of the data it requires to be collected from each contributor will fit easily onto a form the size of a post card.
This flyer is on the internet at: http://come.to/J.E.F.F./
Please visit the web site to see other articles about how your rights and well being depend on Godly government.
Don't have internet access? Try your local library! Many public libraries have computers where you can see what's on the internet!
