Maurice Hinchey: “the American people and most of the Members of this Congress agree that the most important issue currently facing our…”

“the American people and most of the Members of this Congress agree that the most important issue currently facing our country is reforming the way we finance campaigns. Earlier this year, the Senate defeated campaign finance reform when the leadership over there engaged in a filibuster. Now the leadership in this House is bringing a bill to the floor which is a complete hoax. Here is what Common Cause has to say about the bill. ``Under the Republican leadership bill, tobacco companies could continue to launder soft money through the State parties in order to influence Federal elections, as they did in 1996. And under the Republican leadership bill, medium mogul Rupert Murdoch could again run $1 million in soft money through the California Republican party, as he did during the 1996 campaign while he was seeking favorable treatment in Washington on Federal communications legislation.'' He succeeded, by the way. The great Republican Abraham Lincoln said, ``You can't fool all the people all the time.'' Let us stop fooling around and get real campaign finance reform out here on the floor.”