Russ Feingold: “the big lie led to the transformation of our two great political parties into soft money machines. And what was the…”

“the big lie led to the transformation of our two great political parties into soft money machines. And what was the effect of this explosion of soft money, other than the millions of dollars available for ads supporting presidential candidates who had agreed to run their campaigns on equal and limited grants from the federal taxpayers? Soft money is raised primarily from corporate interests who have a legislative axe to grind. And so the explosion of soft money brought an explosion of influence and access in this Congress and in the Administration. Here are some of the companies in this exclusive group. We know they have a big interest in what the Congress does--Philip Morris, Joseph Seagram & Sons, RJR Nabisco, Walt Disney, Atlantic Richfield, AT&T, Federal Express, MCI, the Association of Trial Lawyers, the NEA, Lazard Freres & Co., Anheuser Busch, Eli Lilly, Time Warner, Chevron Corp., Archer Daniel's Midland, NYNEX, Textron Inc., Northwest Airlines. It's a who's who of corporate America, Mr. President. They are investors in the United States Congress and no one can convince the American people that these companies get no return on their investment. They have a say, much too big a say, in what we do. It's that simple, and it's that disturbing. That's why our priorities are so out of whack, Mr. President.”