A Modest Proposal For Governmental Reform

[ThomWV]

The Carrot:

Increase the pay of all Congressmen and Senators to half a million per year, make it a million if you like. Provide a DC housing allowance, substantial but reasonable, to each member. Do the same with the President, make his end a million if you like. Reimburse each member and half a dozen key staff each for every trip they take with the same limitations as is placed on any other Government employee (same per-diem, same cheap travel, same cheap car rental).


The Stick:

Make it illegal for any sitting Congressman or Senator to accept any money or anything of value - other than spoken or written advice - from anyone in conjunction with their official duties. Limit campaign spending to some amount set by law. Do away with tax deduction for contributions to any politician or political activity. Put in place MANDATORY jail time for any offense to the above by the person accepting the money or anything of value as well as each person directly involved in providing it.

There, I think that should do it

[The Deacon]

1. Nice Beginning

But the real problem is private financing of campaigns - a respresentative starts fundraising for his next campaign the day after the election.
1. Restrict campaigning to the 90 days immediately before a campaign.
2. Public financing of all campaigns.

[electropop]

3. Public Financing - yup.

Also, there is currently no tax deduction for campaign contributions, as far as I know.

[Selatius]

2. It'll be struck down as unconstitutional

The ability of private individuals to donate directly to politicians is protected by the 1st Amendment according to how the Supreme Court has ruled in the past. This is the reason why corporations have the right to buy ad time to bat for a candidate as long as they don't specifically mention who they support and as long as they do not directly contribute to the candidate. That, too, is also protected 1st Amendment ground.

The only way you can defeat the system without being struck down by the Court is to a) pack the Court, b) amend the Constitution, or c) set up a voluntary public financing system. Of the three, the last one is the easiest to accomplish.

If you wrote a law that said that a candidate will receive full taxpayer financing provided that he a) collect a set number of, for instance, 5 dollar donations in his district to demonstrate viability/popularity, b) agrees to forego all private contributions by individuals and non-government entities, and c) agrees to abide by spending guidelines, then he will get full public funding for his campaign, the right to state his campaign is publicly financed, and additional funding to a certain extent if he is outspent by his opponent.

If you wrote that law and passed it, it should pass muster because it does not explicitly ban a private individual's right to donate because the politician always has the right to return a donation. You still have a right to donate to the individual, but if he has applied and qualified for public financing, then he will return the donation back to you. The only money he would get is taxpayer money.