Rick Allen: “Most recently, in the Colorado Republicans case, which was the case dealing with hard money limits, the Court said, if…”

“Most recently, in the Colorado Republicans case, which was the case dealing with hard money limits, the Court said, if it appears to Congress, if it appears to Congress that the existing hard money limitations could be circumvented because of contributions to the political parties, i.e., soft money, then the Congress could rethink whether or not it wanted to change limits or create limits on contributions to the national parties. That is why we are here. Because what used to be a loophole is now a highway because there is too much money in this system, soft money. It is being used to influence Federal elections. We need to shut down this system. It is, in fact, soft money, these unlimited contributions from corporations, from unions, from wealthy individuals to the national parties in the last cycle that is subverting our political process. That does not mean that you go to any one individual and say this result was influenced by big money. What we have got in this system, in this country right now is a political system gone awry. We need to change it. What we have got with the Thomas amendment is an attempt to subvert the Shays-Meehan bill. That is what is going on here. The folks who are trying to improve the Shays-Meehan bill with this amendment, with this proposed amendment, are not supporters of reform generally. They are trying to undermine reform. There is no question about it. It may be an argument about free speech, may be an argument about other forms of money.…”