John Doolittle: “the first amendment is quite clear, ``Congress shall make no law bridging the freedom of speech.'' And yet, the whole…”

“the first amendment is quite clear, ``Congress shall make no law bridging the freedom of speech.'' And yet, the whole business of campaign reform as has come out before the Members of the House largely centers on how do we bridge the freedom of speech. There is a whole litany of ways, many of which are displayed before us. However, the bill by the gentleman from Colorado (Mr. Bob Schaffer) is designed to protect the freedom of speech, the freedom of speech of those members of the unions who have the right to make sure that their money is not spent contrary to their own purposes. It is a good bill. It is one of the few bills out here I can say I support wholeheartedly today. Mr. Speaker, I listened to the gentleman from Connecticut (Mr. Gejdenson) cite the history of the Democrats' involvement with campaign finance reform. He quite correctly pointed out in 1974 they did pass the present law, the disastrous present law that skewed contributions to PACs over contributions to individuals. We never really heard of PACs before, until that became the law. By the way, 2 years ago, as recently as that, PACs was the great Satan; and today it is soft money. Soft money was given to us as well by this law, which places such severe restraints on direct contributions to candidates that money could flow then into the area of soft money, the unregulated area.”