Like many Republicans and Democrats in the Congress, I support common-sense reforms to end abuses in our campaign finance system. The reforms passed today, while flawed in some areas, still improve the current system overall, and I will sign them into law.
The legislation makes some important progress on the timeliness of disclosure, individual contribution limits, and banning soft money from corporations and labor unions, but it does present some legitimate constitutional questions. I continue to believe the best reform is full and timely disclosure of campaign contributions.
May mean not to be enforced. Have patience. Let Bush play his cards.
That should be the only reform.
I think that even disclosure is a bad thing, especially for contributions under $1,000. Disclosure is essentially the opposite of privacy. Right now, you get your name, home address, job title and employer posted on the web if you make a $200 contribution. And since records go back to 1980, anyone can find out where you used to work and where you used to live. Full searches allow for someone to search by zip, or even by company. So if you work at a company, all your co-workers will know whom you support. All your neighbors will know this.
Clients of yours, customers of yours, everyone knows. Yet this really shouldn't be. $200 isn't going to get you in the Lincoln bedroom, it isn't going to change any legislation, etc. Yet your privacy gets totally blown away when you make a $200 contribution. So I full heartedly disagree. Disclosure isn't the answer.