David Obey: “I have been at the center of virtually every effort to reform campaign finance since the day I walked into this…”

“I have been at the center of virtually every effort to reform campaign finance since the day I walked into this institution, but this exercise today is absolutely useless. It is going to produce a useless bill, which is an absolutely fraudulent imitation of real campaign reform. It gives the wealthy an even greater lock on the political system than they have right now. The main issue in campaign finance is simply, how do we change the fact that wealthy people have far too much influence on politics today, whether they give individually or collectively? The existing campaign finance system is beyond repair. It ought to be blown up. What amazes me is that we continue this fiction in this place that somehow elections ought to be handled as a private matter. There is no more public activity in which American citizens engage than electing the leaders who are supposed to help run the country. This is a public responsibility. It should not be financed by the richest private deep-pockets people in this country. That is why the electoral system is virtually owned lock, stock, and barrel by the economic elite in this country, and we are not going to change that until we blow up the existing system. I am against this silly rule because it refused to allow my amendment to be offered which would have banned all private money whatsoever in general elections. It would have eliminated all soft money loopholes.”