- Joined
- Jan 21, 2009
- Messages
- 65,981
- Reaction score
- 23,408
- Gender
- Male
- Political Leaning
- Undisclosed
Multiple choice, public vote poll
As the media devoted all its attention on the Ferguson and NYC police incidents, Congress quietly passed a $1.1 trillion dollar budget extension without dispute. USUALLY, these budget extensions are huge political, partisan and heavy media coverage fights.
For how fast and silently it passed, for the last couple days I wondered what the two political parties had snuck by during what was essentially a news blackout about the government. Now we know.
The two political parties agreed to raise the amount of political money rich people can give to the political parties by a lot.
Campaign finance watchdog groups Democracy 21, the Campaign Legal Center and Common Cause, flagged the provision about an hour after the appropriations bill was released.“This makes the Great Train Robbery look like a petty misdemeanor,” said Democracy 21 President Fred Wertheimer. “These provisions have never been considered by the House or Senate, and were never even publicly mentioned before today.”
While national party committees have a contribution limit of $32,400 per year for each donor, the three new accounts would have their own separate, higher contribution limits — up to $97,200 each per year. A political party's two congressional campaign committees that raise money for House and Senate candidates would also have two of those three accounts at their donors' disposal.
In effect, that means that an individual could give up to $648,000 to the Republican National Committee or the Democratic National Committee during each two-year election cycle, and the House and Senate committees for each party could each collect $453,600 from one donor.
A wealthy political contributor could therefore give a total of more than $1.55 million to a national party through its three committees.
Parties cut deal to open spigot of campaign cash | TheHill
So in a 2 year cycle a husband and wife team can contribute over $3,000,000 - and for a 4 year presidential cycle over $6 million dollars.
We learned last week that an ambassadorship sells for only about $500,000. So $6,000,000 will buy a lot.
Of course, this massively protects incumbents who tote the party line and is a massive hurdle for anyone running for Congress - or re-election - that doesn't. We now know the reaction of Congress to the midterms in which incumbents were actually defeated. To make their political parties for-sale and force any candidate - incumbent or not - to do exactly as their political party dictates. The Republicans and Democratic politicians did reach a deal. A massive increase in money for their re-elections.
As the media devoted all its attention on the Ferguson and NYC police incidents, Congress quietly passed a $1.1 trillion dollar budget extension without dispute. USUALLY, these budget extensions are huge political, partisan and heavy media coverage fights.
For how fast and silently it passed, for the last couple days I wondered what the two political parties had snuck by during what was essentially a news blackout about the government. Now we know.
The two political parties agreed to raise the amount of political money rich people can give to the political parties by a lot.
Campaign finance watchdog groups Democracy 21, the Campaign Legal Center and Common Cause, flagged the provision about an hour after the appropriations bill was released.“This makes the Great Train Robbery look like a petty misdemeanor,” said Democracy 21 President Fred Wertheimer. “These provisions have never been considered by the House or Senate, and were never even publicly mentioned before today.”
While national party committees have a contribution limit of $32,400 per year for each donor, the three new accounts would have their own separate, higher contribution limits — up to $97,200 each per year. A political party's two congressional campaign committees that raise money for House and Senate candidates would also have two of those three accounts at their donors' disposal.
In effect, that means that an individual could give up to $648,000 to the Republican National Committee or the Democratic National Committee during each two-year election cycle, and the House and Senate committees for each party could each collect $453,600 from one donor.
A wealthy political contributor could therefore give a total of more than $1.55 million to a national party through its three committees.
Parties cut deal to open spigot of campaign cash | TheHill
So in a 2 year cycle a husband and wife team can contribute over $3,000,000 - and for a 4 year presidential cycle over $6 million dollars.
We learned last week that an ambassadorship sells for only about $500,000. So $6,000,000 will buy a lot.
Of course, this massively protects incumbents who tote the party line and is a massive hurdle for anyone running for Congress - or re-election - that doesn't. We now know the reaction of Congress to the midterms in which incumbents were actually defeated. To make their political parties for-sale and force any candidate - incumbent or not - to do exactly as their political party dictates. The Republicans and Democratic politicians did reach a deal. A massive increase in money for their re-elections.
Last edited: