Monday, August 31, 2009

McCain Sponsored Finance Reform In Question


“The Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 (BCRA, McCain–Feingold Act, Pub.L. 107-155, 116 Stat. 81, enacted March 27, 2002) is United States federal law that amended the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971, which regulates the financing of political campaigns. Its chief sponsors were Senators Russell Feingold (D-WI) and John McCain (R-AZ). The law became effective on 6 November 2002, and the new legal limits became effective on January 1, 2003.” Wikipedia


The basis of this post isn’t so much whether or not you agree with the bill. Me personally, I think its the dumbest thing a Republican could do (but then again, we all know how great of a Republican McCain is). Why!? Why cut off all of the companies from giving to your campaign? Being a conservative, McCain is supposed to be mindful of AT LEAST basic economics (which discourages government from meddling in economic affairs), and supportive of a corporations and other groups right to exercise free speech by giving money to the candidate they think will best benefit them. Instead, he authors this bill that outraged many conservatives and quite frankly shouldn’t have been signed by Bush (another GREAT “compassionate” conservative). On top of that, the Supreme Court completely ignores the unconstitutionality of the bill and allows it to become the law of the land. Unbelievable.


Anyways, the most basic part of this bill was:


1.The increased role of soft money in campaign financing, by prohibiting national political party committees from raising or spending any funds not subject to federal limits, even for state and local races or issue discussion;


2.The proliferation of issue advocacy ads, by defining as “electioneering communications” broadcast ads that name a federal candidate within 30 days of a primary or caucus or 60 days of a general election, and prohibiting any such ad paid for by a corporation (including non-profit issue organizations such as Right to Life or the Environmental Defense Fund) or paid for by an unincorporated entity using any corporate or union funds.


The issue that is presented is whether or not Citizens United broke these rules when they ran a ”90-minute film released during last year’s presidential election lambasting then-New York Sen. Hillary Clinton, who was seeking the Democratic presidential nomination.”(Politico, link below)


“The case in question,Citizens United v. FEC, deals with whether federal election laws should have applied.” This would be a great moment for the Supreme Court to overturn the Campaign Reform Act, although I won’t be holding my breath. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for fairness in politics, but the Campaign Reform Act goes a couple of steps too far by imposing ridiculous limitations that seem to single out wealthy, more than likely Republican, ilk. I’ll be keeping my eyes and ears open on September 9th, and I hope you all do as well.


This brings me to the reason that this all caught my attention (a little story for you all). I have recently been reading Mark Levin’s “Men in Black” (whatever you may think about his show or personality, there is no denying his excellent penmanship and constitutional knowledge) and came across the chapter talking about this bill. I finished the chapter, and then happened to glance at the table in the break room. On the table was a USW (United Steel Workers) magazine. It is a union publication. So, I picked it up and started to skim through it. Needless to say, it reaffirmed my hatred of unions as they are today. The entire magazine was either an Obama love story or how Republicans are evil people. I thought to myself: WHY would McCain bow to a-holes like these, and give up OUR leverage when THEIR leverage is alive and strong. Then, driving home from work, I hear McCain on some radio program talking about how he hopes the Supreme Court doesn’t overturn his bill. REALLY? You would rather throw a conservative group under the bus and spit on the constitution (simultaneously, mind you) in order to keep on some bill you authored almost eight years ago? Didn’t your embarrassing defeat teach you anything about not throwing fellow conservatives to the wolves and not making dumb decisions? So, I decided at that point that a little research was in order. I’d love to hear every body’s comments on this one: am I being unreasonable? Is there something I’m missing here?


Posted by Travis Gearhart
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