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

“the current Congress can be broken into two groups: Those who think there is too much money in politics, and those who think there is not enough. I am of the former belief. During the 1996 election cycle, candidates running for Federal office spent over $1.6 billion to get elected. 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 the campaigns. Soft money is unregulated and is not subject to any of the contribution limits. Democrats and Republicans combined to raise more than $260 million in soft money, a 206 percent increase, in 1992. If this trend is allowed to continue, we can expect the soft money figure to reach almost $1 billion in the year 2000. It is the abuse of soft money that has so badly tainted our system. It is soft money abuses that are the source of the investigations of the 1996 campaign.”