Congress Considers Regressive Campaign Finance Reform

Generally when a legislative body considers reform of some sort, the intent is to help society progress in some fashion. However, that is not the case with the latest bill that addresses the tenuous issue of campaign finance. The battle over money in politics has gone on for decades, but the current Congress (particularly those that wrote these bills) is trying to hoodwink the public into thinking something is being done when the "big donor" and "special interest" money is merely being diverted. Dan Jacoby dug through the language of the legislation and found what was being done.

From The Albany Project:

Looking at the House bill, the key sentence is found on in Section 513, on page 17. (House bill text available at the GPO website.) It reads, "For purposes of this subsection, a payment made by a political party in coordination with a participating candidate shall not be treated as a contribution to or as an expenditure made by the participating candidate." In other words, political parties, and their various committees, can continue to raise and spend all the money they can get their greedy hands on.

Under this bill, it becomes obvious to anyone who has been involved in campaign fundraising that instead of a candidate trying to raise $4,600 directly, the candidate will ask for $100 for his or her campaign, and have the other $4,500 donated to the candidate's political party committee. The money won't disappear; it will merely shift from a candidate's campaign committee to the party's campaign committee.

Meanwhile, in a complete waste of taxpayer money, the government will be dumping hundreds of millions of dollars into campaigns to replace money that will still be raised and spent on campaigns and elsewhere.

This all means that everything bad about money and politics will remain the same, with the addition of federal money to back it up. The critics get plenty of ammunition to shut this flawed bill down and allows for another year, or two or more to go by with no real solution to our campaign finance problem. Meanwhile, there is a blueprint to go by that works, but the authors of this bill think they can trick us.

Congressional Drama In 100 Seconds

TPM knows how to clip the first day back for Congress, and to fit in some Obama and Richard Simmons too:

Dems Take Gender Into Account For New House Rules

It may sound insignificant in the scheme of things, but the House of Representatives did something nice for all those who support gender equality. I'm sure Newt Gingrich and Denny Hastert had too much on their minds when they were Speaker to change the language of the House, but Nancy Pelosi took the time to equal things out.

From ThinkProgress:

In its new package of rule changes, the House has finally decided to make its official language gender neutral, recognizing the growing representation of women in Congress (including as Speaker of the House). Gone are references to “he,” “chairman,” and phrases such as “his duties.” From the resolution:

Read the full list of changes here (gender neutrality language beginning on p. 9).

Of course the actual legislation passed by this new Congress matters far more than a simple rules change for the 435 members of the House. Yet it is still a positive move and frankly, it was always odd to call a woman a Chairman...striking the "man" part works out just fine. Furthermore, it breaks down one of the small institutionalized settings that have helped to favor men over women for centuries.

Burris Denied Entry By The Senate

Today is the first day of the 111th Congress and already we are seeing fireworks, unfortunately the unnecessary kind. Instead of getting and focusing on action that the American people deserve, we have the drama that is Roland Burris. The ethically tainted and disgraced Gov. Blagojevich appointed him, yet he is not officially certified by the Illinois Sec. of State. Burris also went there knowing that a majority of the Senate (the Dems that is) made it clear they wouldn't seat a Blagojevich choice, even before that choice was made. And now the drama begins.

From TPM:

Burris just made a brief statement to reporters, after his credentials were rejected by the Secretary of the Senate. "Members of the media, my name is Roland Burris, junior Senator from the state of Illinois," Burris said, in an effort to establish his legitimacy. "I presented my credentials to the Secretary of the Senate and was advised that my credentials are not in order, I will not be accepted, and I will not be seated, I will not be permitted on the floor."

He then added that he was not seeking any kind of confrontation -- but did not expressly rule out any lawsuit. Instead, he said he would be consulting with his attorneys on what his next step will be.

It is ridiculous that as a country have to be subjected to this nonsense. Now there'll be lawsuits, multiple press conferences and missing Senators from the chamber that will impede the business of the people. And this is just the beginning, already we have DiFi and Rockefeller protesting the Panetta pick for CIA head and Reid and Pelosi have already proven themselves as weak leaders in the previous Congress. Barack certainly has his work cut out for him if he is to have a successful start to his Presidency.