Political Quotes

“I want to start today by reading a few quotes on the issue of campaign finance reform. Here is the first one from 1987: What we ought to do is eliminate the political action committee contributions because those are the ones that raise the specter of undue influence. And those can be gone tomorrow. We can pass a bill tomorrow to take care of that problem. Another quote from the next year: We Republicans have put together a responsible and constitutional campaign reform agenda. It would restrict the power of special interest PACs, stop the flow of all soft money, keep wealthy individuals from buying public office. Two years later, 1990: We would eliminate PACs altogether. It would be interesting to see whether our colleagues on the other side of the aisle will be willing to eliminate PACs altogether. And we would have the money come from individuals in small and fully disclosed amounts. A few years later, 1997: Public disclosure of campaign contributions and spending should be expedited so voters can judge for themselves what is appropriate. These are reforms which respect the Constitution and would enhance our democracy. Three years later, in 2000, another quote: We need to have real disclosure. And so what we ought to do is broaden the disclosure to include at least labor unions and tax-exempt business associations and trial lawyers so that you include the major political players in America. Why would a little disclosure be better than a lot of disclosure?…”