Professor Richard W. Painter, the chief ethics lawyer under former President George W. Bush has an o
Professor Richard W. Painter, the chief ethics lawyer under former President George W. Bush has an op-ed in the New York Times on the “conservative case for campaign finance reform.” He concludes:“Taxation in the United States should be conditioned on every individual taxpayer’s being allowed to designate the first $200 of his or her taxes to support a political candidate. Such a “tax rebate for democracy” would bring billions of small donations to political candidates, who would no longer depend on a tiny sliver of the population for the money they need to get elected. Government contractors and other beneficiaries of wasteful spending would have less influence, and ordinary voters would have a fighting chance to make sure the rest of their tax dollars were spent conservatively and responsibly.“This and other reforms, including greater transparency about who is paying for election ads, and a less activist Supreme Court that would allow Congress and state legislatures to address campaign finance, would go a long way toward restoring the republican form of government that our founders embedded in the Constitution.” -- source link
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