Bill Pascrell: “the current Members of Congress can be broken into two groups, those who think that there is too much money in politics…”

“the current Members of Congress can be broken into two groups, those who think that there is too much money in politics in an election and those who think there is not enough. That goes across party lines. Mr. Speaker, whether we want to admit it or not, the fact is that our campaign finance system is jeopardizing our credibility. We should not fool ourselves into believing that the problem is only the illegal activities that occur during campaigns. Quite to the contrary, the real problems stem from what is legal. It is the abuse of soft money time and time again. We heard it from both sides of the aisle in the campaign finance bill submitted by the freshman bipartisan committee. Instead of bringing up our bill, instead of bringing up McCain-Feingold II, for which there is also widespread bipartisan support, the leadership on the other side of the aisle has decided to hide behind some parliamentary tactics. This is a low point in the 14 months that I have been in here. In fact, it may be the lowest point.”