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Yes, it can.
In order to fix the system you need to:
- Understand how it is supposed to work.
- Understand what keeps it from working.
If you already understand the problem, use the following links to go straight to:
- a simple solution.
- see the law that will enact the simple solution
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The act of promising, giving, receiving, or agreeing to receive money or some other item of value with the corrupt aim of influencing a public official in the discharge of his official duties. (bribery 2009)
The giving of contributions, usually money, to a politician for use in his campaign for political office. Politicians receive campaign contributions from individuals, corporations and political action committees (PACs).
You will often hear politicians claim something along the lines of that just because they receive a lot of campaign contributions from someone doesn't mean that they will represent their interests.
Even a pumpkin can figure out that these arguments are fertilizer.
One of the arguments you will hear is that contributions are "legal". Again, that same pumpkin knows that this is a situation of the people that want to receive the bribes having the power to enact laws that make the bribery legal.
Issue Basic Critical Thinking Duty Elected officials are supposed to represent the people that are legally eligible to vote for them. Problem Any person, corporation and PAC can give contributions to any candidate, even if they are NOT legally eligible to vote for the candidate. Question Why would anyone give campaign contributions to a politician whom they are not legally eligible to vote for? Answer The people making the contributions expect something in return for their money. Result The politicians who receive these contributions end up representing the interests of people who cannot legally vote for them.
In U.S. politics, an organization whose purpose is to raise and distribute campaign funds to candidates seeking political office. PACs are formed by corporations, labor unions, trade associations, or other organizations to solicit voluntary campaign contributions from individuals and channel the resulting funds to candidates for elective offices in the federal government, primarily in the House of Representatives and the Senate. PACs rose to prominence after the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 set strict limits on the amount of money a particular corporation, union, or private individual could give to a candidate.
By soliciting smaller contributions from a much larger number of individuals, PACs circumvent these limitations and manage to provide substantial funds for candidates. By the late 20th century, the vast amounts of money raised by PACs had greatly escalated the cost of running for federal office in the United States. (political action committee 2009)
Campaigns for all levels of office are expensive in the United States compared with those in most other democratic countries. In an attempt to reduce the influence of money in the political process, reforms were instituted in the 1970s that required public disclosure of contributions and limited the amounts of contributions to candidates for federal office. Individuals were allowed to contribute directly to a candidate no more than $1,000 in so-called “hard money” (i.e., money regulated by federal election law) per candidate per election.
The law, however, allowed labor unions, corporations, political advocacy groups, and political parties to raise and spend unregulated “soft money,” so long as funds were not spent specifically to support a candidate for federal office (in practice, this distinction was often blurry).
Because there were no limits on such soft money, individuals or groups could contribute to political parties any sum at their disposal or spend limitlessly to advocate policy positions (often to the benefit or detriment of particular candidates). In the 2000 election cycle, it is estimated that more than $1 billion was spent by the Democratic and Republican parties and candidates for office, with more than two-fifths of this total coming from soft money contributions.
Concerns about campaign financing led to the passage of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 (popularly called the “McCain-Feingold law” for its two chief sponsors in the Senate, Republican John McCain and Democrat Russell Feingold), which banned national political parties from raising soft money. The law also increased the amount individuals could contribute to candidates (indexing the amount for inflation) and prevented interest groups from broadcasting advertisements that specifically referred to a candidate within 30 days of a primary election and 60 days of a general election.
There are no federal limits on how much an individual may spend on his or her own candidacy. In 1992, for example, Ross Perot spent more than $60 million of his fortune on his unsuccessful bid to become president of the United States, and Michael Bloomberg was elected mayor of New York City in 2001 after spending nearly $70 million of his own funds.
The campaign finance law of 2002 allowed candidates for federal office to raise amounts greater than the normal limit on individual hard money contributions when running against wealthy, largely self-financed opponents. (money and campaigns 2009).
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bribe. (2009). In Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary. Retrieved July 03, 2009 from http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bribe
bribery. (2009). In Encyclopedia Brittannica. Retrieved July 04, 2009 from Encyclopædia Britannica Online: http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/79186/bribery
money and campaigns. (2009). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved July 03, 2009, from Encyclopædia Britannica Online: http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/616563/United-States/233797/Money-and-campaigns#ref797691
political action committee. (2009). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved July 03, 2009, from Encyclopædia Britannica Online: http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/467577/political-action-committee
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