Letter to the editor: Sept. 16, 2015

Congress must act on campaign finance reform

Campaign finance reform is like immigration reform. If the politicians wanted it, we would have it. An old professor of mine had an adage: “You gotta wanna.” The fact that Hillary and the Democrats want to rescind the Citizens United decision is a good thing. It will, however, require a constitutional amendment to accomplish. I suggest an amendment as follows:

“No candidate for public office may accept donations of cash or services from any entity other than registered voters in his or her district. The limit on such donations is $10,000.00 per individual donor per election cycle. Donations of money, goods or services from any organization, corporation, political party, or persons outside of the candidate’s election district is strictly prohibited.”

Realizing that this language would be totally rejected by the Republicans, the Democrats could offer to back a balanced budget amendment as follows:

“Total expenditures of the federal government shall not exceed the prior three years average of total federal income, nor shall it exceed 16 percent of the prior year’s GDP. This provision will be waived in times of war.”

My point is, if the Democrats and Republicans want these amendments, and they publicly say they do, let them offer both as a package deal. If they “wanna,” they will pass. If they do not “wanna,” we will know soon enough that they are blowing smoke yet again.

If Congress will not act, maybe the states will. One can only hope.

John W. McNamee

York

This story was originally published September 15, 2015 at 10:00 AM with the headline "Letter to the editor: Sept. 16, 2015."