H.R. 20, "The Government by the People Act"

This title, given by the House Democrats, is a misnomer.  It should be titled, “Government Says Goodbye to the People Act.”  This is not to imply that the “one percenters” who have purchased our democracy are not people, they are.  I am even willing to concede that they are smart people.  Now, back to this bill.  Under its terms a “small donor’s donation” of $100, to a Representative’s campaign fund would be matched on a 6 to 1 basis from a government fund (your tax dollars).  You would get a $100 tax credit for the donation.  So, $700 goes to a campaign fund and $100 in taxes is never collected.  You don’t have to spend a dime after your tax credit in order to see $700 come out of education, healthcare or the warfare fund.

The purpose of this bill is to enable your individual voting dollars to compete with the corporate dollars of the PACs.  As you know, your Supreme Court recently sold our democracy to the highest bidders by deeming that corporations can anonymously donate unlimited dollars to PACs.  If the little people’s donations can rival the corporate donations the hypothesis is that the bill would even the playing field.  Not so.  The small donor’s dollars will be distributed fairly evenly between the right and the left.  PAC dollars will still determine the game.  They are not impacted by H.R. 20.

So who gains if this bill passes?  Well, the radio and TV networks will, of course, with much larger campaign dollars and they are far too large now.  Those running for Congress will gain, because a well-financed campaign is much more fun for the candidate.   Of the 135 co-sponsors of this Congressional bill, only one is a Republican.  U.S. Rep. Walter Jones, R-N.C. is the only Republican Congressman who has read the bill.  The other Republicans simply know that they don’t like anything that the Democrats like.  We are dealing with, “Dumb and Dumber” here.  Read the bill.  It is only 36 pages long.  It will put you to sleep, but it is worth your time.  You will see that my first two paragraphs are true.

You could probably write a hundred bills that were intended to give the voters more power in our democracy and perhaps two would work.  H.R.20 isn’t one of the two.  My personal bill would limit each voter’s donation, to each candidate of their choice, to $10.  There would be no corporate or union donations.  They aren’t voters and their shareholders and union members have no say in who gets the government bribes.  The ten dollars would not be tax deductible.  If you would like to see a given person represent you, give them an anonymous ten bucks.  Let your representative be beholden to no one.  Let them use their mind and their conscience to guide their votes and proposals.  The network air time needs to be free and divided based on the number of signatures of voters backing the candidate.  Why should the networks “give” the air time?  Because, it is our air that is being used to deliver their product.  What a good deal for them.  Wouldn’t it be nice if our representatives were in Washington for our benefit?  Wouldn’t it be nice if their purpose was not to fight another political party or benefit a large corporation?  The funny thing is, those corporations would do very well without our government in their back pockets.  They don’t need unfair advantages.  You see, most Americans would like to see our corporations do well in the world.  We work for them.

Cheers, Old Buz