Jim Baird: “People have said that the legislative process is like making sausage, it might taste good at the end but we do not want…”

“People have said that the legislative process is like making sausage, it might taste good at the end but we do not want to see how it is made. I think people are all too familiar and believe that the process is made unfortunately through contributions. What we are trying to do here is say, and I want to emphasize this, the bill that we are putting forward that the gentleman from Connecticut (Mr. Shays) and the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Meehan) have put forward and in our class and my colleague and myself have endorsed does not say we have to stop all money. Because, quite frankly, we do need financial resources. Campaigns to reach 500,000 people with their message do cost money. But it says the way we raise the money needs to be reformed. It says the playing field needs to be level. It says enormous special-interest contributions and thinly disguised attack ads need to be eliminated. It says they need to have access to information about who is contributing so they can see the groups they agree with or disagree with support this candidate, they can see if the group says, 'we are citizens for a wonderful, happy economy and gracious environment,' or some such thing, who the heck are those people? Because oftentimes the names they choose are different than the agenda they would have us believe through their titles. That is why we need the reform. We have got to have transparency. We have got to have a level playing field. We have got to have reasonable limits.…”