Rick Allen: “this amendment like others is a poison pill. It is designed to undermine campaign reform. It is designed to change the…”

“this amendment like others is a poison pill. It is designed to undermine campaign reform. It is designed to change the Shays-Meehan bill in a way to reduce its support. I simply want to raise a couple of things, go back to a couple of things that have been said here. This is not about denying any group its right to speak in American politics. This is not about preventing groups from sending postcards. It is not about preventing people from communicating about their representatives. What it is about is saying, if you are going to communicate in a way that pretends to be about an issue but in fact is meant to influence an election, we need to know who is paying for the ads. We need to get disclosure. That is what this is about. There are those on the other side who preach disclosure, disclosure, disclosure as one approach to the abuses of this campaign season, except when it comes to outside groups running ads. And then they say, ``Oh, no, we can't have disclosure.'' We need disclosure when it comes to issue advocacy. That is why I think this is an amendment that needs to be defeated. The second point I will make is just this. It was asked earlier how much money is too much money in politics. Well, this is not about free speech. It is about big money. It is not about protecting the free speech of a constituent. It is about preserving big money in this system. Too much money is unlimited money flowing to the national parties to run ads.”