Kay Bailey Hutchison: “I want to speak against cloture on this bill, but I also want to talk about what I think is good about the bill and why…”

“I want to speak against cloture on this bill, but I also want to talk about what I think is good about the bill and why I am voting against cloture. First, I want to say, if I were titling this bill, it would be called the Incumbency Protection Act, because that is what limitations on expenditures for campaigns will do. It will take away the right of a challenger to be able to raise more money than an incumbent with the advantage of name identification and to be able to go forward with a message. What they say in this bill is that it is voluntary. It is voluntary, but you pay quite a price if you do not adhere to the limits. You, then, will be faced with 30 minutes of free broadcast time against you, if you do not adhere to the limits. You will have reduced postal rates against you. This is really coercive. Then there is the cost. My gosh, the Postmaster General has said he will have to raise all postal rates if he has to provide reduced rates. So I want to talk about why I think this is the most important part of the bill. But I also want to talk about what I think is good in the bill because, if we ever want to come back to this, there are some improvements that we really ought to make, and I will be supportive of these things. I love the idea of requiring 60 percent of campaign funds to be raised from individuals in a State. I think that is something that will enable the people in the State to have the right say in the election of their Members of the U.S.…”