Stephanie Haven of McClatchy reports Democratic senators: Amend Constitution to limit money in elections
WASHINGTON — The Senate began debate Tuesday on a Democrat-proposed constitutional amendment that would allow the government to regulate campaign money again, a response to recent Supreme Court rulings that removed limits on certain election contributions.
Democrats argue that the Supreme Court’s decisions in two cases allowed billionaires _ most notably conservatives Charles and David Koch _ to influence politics at rates disproportionate to the rest of the populace.
“The flood of dark money into our nation’s political system poses the greatest threat to our democracy that I have witnessed during my tenure in public service,” Reid said. “The decisions by the Supreme Court have left the American people with a status quo in which one side’s billionaires are pitted against the other side’s billionaires.”
Senator Harry Reid cited two Supreme Court decisions that he said had "eviscerated our campaign laws, Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission and McCutcheon v. FEC.”
Senate Minority Leaders, Mitch McConnell and Republicans criticized the bill as a threat to First Amendment rights, and Bill of Rights.
Stephanie Haven tell us that Democrats do not have much of a chance to actually pass this bill because it would require a two-thirds majority of both the House and Senate, and then ratification by 38 states. This makes me even happier than Senate Majority leaders Harry Reid is pushing this.
Sometimes you just have to like Reid's pugnacity. His old days as a boxer seem to have been excellent preparation for being Majority Leader. If Republicans are going to reduce our Congress to being primarily an exercise in political theater we might as well play too. I think Harry Reid ought to start a Special Senate Select Committee to investigate everyone who voted against the $28 billion 10 year funding bill to expand the VA in February which the G.O.P. filibustered.
And start another investigation into what terrible poisons must be in red-state water causing them to be so dumb that they can't understand climate science. But, maybe that's one of the reasons I'm not the Senate Majority leader.