Sam Gejdenson: “my friends on the majority, the Republicans, are on the horns of a dilemma. They are trying to keep the focus on the…”

“my friends on the majority, the Republicans, are on the horns of a dilemma. They are trying to keep the focus on the Presidential campaign. They always forget Mr. Barbour, their chairman, who got a half a million dollars from a Chinese company. It seems clear by some of the articles that they targeted foreign money over at the RNC, they washed it through a nonprofit and sent it over to the RNC. But we can all sit here and talk about the failures of the present system. The horns of the dilemma which they are on is while they can highlight the problem, the American people reject their solution. The last time they brought a bill to the floor they wanted to increase the amount of money wealthy individuals could give. If Members think wealthy people do not have enough access to Government, maybe that is their solution. The American people do not believe that. They wanted to increase the amount of money you could give to parties in almost every other category. The American people do not believe that is the solution. So the reason they do not want to bring the bill to the floor is because if they bring it to the floor, the solution they present will be almost unanimously rejected by the American people. The record here is clear. Under Democratic control this House passed campaign finance reform through the House and Senate. It was then vetoed by President Bush.”