Get the Mega-Money Out of Politics

Congress is a broken, dysfunctional, living on a different planet, worse than useless, institution. I have long ago concluded that there is only one bottom-line goal for our representatives in congress and that is to get re-elected. Nothing else matters anymore.

I have stopped believing that there is a practical solution for this mess. Sure, in theory, all that has to be done is separate the mega-money from campaigns. It would be far less expensive for the American taxpayer to set a limit to what can be spent on a congressional campaign and then write a check for every viable candidate for that amount. Campaigns don't have to cost hundreds of millions. TV and radio frequencies used to belong to the American public. Congress gave them away. Congress could take them back. Write a check for $10 million and put every S.O.B. in jail who violates it. Everyone. Every banker, wall-street tycoon, movie star, corporate sleaze-ball who has a congressman in their pocket.



Well you can see why this is going nowhere. When you sell your soul to the devil, there's no "do-overs". There's no "I-didn't-mean-like-forever."








After the Massachusetts Massacre
BY:
New York Times
OP-ED Columnist
Frank Rich
Published January 24, 2010