what if it was a federal crime to make a campaign contribution to a specific politician or political party ?

Question

what if all campaign contibutions were pooled togeather and only the candidates nominated by their party could use the money with each candidate receiving the same amount for each public election. the size of the ammount would depend on the scope of the election. also all current tax exemptions on campaign contributions would remain the same. and one last thing, it would be a federal and international crime to make a private or corporate contribution to a specific politician or a specific political party. how different would our world be ?

Answer 1

It would be far worse than it currently is -- which is difficult.

The change you are proposing goes in the wrong direction. It means that ONLY the political party has any say in what candidates run for office -- which is the direct OPPOSITE of what the constitution intended.

It would in effect guarantee that nothing would change, because there would be no need for any politician to ever engage the public -- they just do back-room dealings to win their primary, and then whichever party has more money wins the general election.

Answer 2

Its been thought of. Since most candidates spend enough on an election to run a small country for four years, they are not likely to approve being put on a tight budget. Those with more funding will definitely be against it.

Although I am for campaign finance reform, I don't think that public funding will cure the problem of influence-peddling because the big lobbies will still just employ the candidates brother as a 'consultant' or offer to loan his biggest constituents money.

Russia had such laws, and I never understood how Yeltsin could have lost $6 million in the bank crash, when he only earned $2000 a month. Whatever law you can devise, a clever politician can get around it.

Answer 3

That all sounds like a good idea except for the fact that leading up to the nomination a person must pay for a campaign to obtain the party's nomination. Many running for office could pay for their own campaign but the amount of money required to campaign is costly & would leave some who are not as rich as others without the funds to run a campaign leading up to the nomination. These just might be the best people for the job & they would not stand a chance of winning an election because they cound not wage a decent campaign to even be considered as a viable nominee.

Answer 4

Just ban all political parties, which makes it so only independents can run for president. It guarantees many diverse views among candidates for the people to choose from.

Very simple.