George Miller: “Campaign money at its current levels in the Congress of the United States is dangerous to our democracy, it is toxic to…”

“Campaign money at its current levels in the Congress of the United States is dangerous to our democracy, it is toxic to our system, it is corrosive of our values and it is corrupting of this institution. It is time that we get it under control and that once again we allow average men and women in this country to participate. But unfortunately the legislation brought forth by the Republicans does not do that. It does not do that because in fact, as the gentleman just explained, it makes it more difficult for working men and women to participate in campaigns while making it easier for the wealthy of this country to participate. It still allows soft money, which has become the sewer of campaign money, to run unregulated and has nothing to do about that. Soft money. I bet a lot of Americans wish they had soft money. They only have hard money, money that they work hard for every day. But some people are so wealthy they have soft money. It is given out in $20,000 and $30,000 and $50,000 and $100,000 bundles to parties, to unregulated activities, to influence campaigns. What has been the result? Well, we saw what the results were with Republicans when in the first 100 days during the Contract on America, they were raising money in unprecedented levels. They threw open the doors of the offices around here to lobbyists to write legislation.”