John Doolittle: “Well, I assure the gentleman, there is lots of room for debate in this. The Buckley case, of course, is completely…”

“Well, I assure the gentleman, there is lots of room for debate in this. The Buckley case, of course, is completely consistent with prior cases on the First Amendment and has been upheld repeatedly, dozens of decisions since then, so it is not an exception to the Supreme Court's rulings in this area. It is not an aberration. It is completely consistent with mainstream constitutional law. It was correctly decided for the most part, I have quibbles with parts of it, but in general the idea that you cannot place expenditure limits on people who are running for office is desirable and constitutionally correct. The gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Obey) really, in his substitute, does what I think most of the sponsors of Shays-Meehan really want, and that is to get the public financing. That is highly unpopular, and I wish the gentleman would bring it up for a vote. I have taken a radically different course than most of the other bills with my full disclosure and deregulation.”