PoliticoPay.com (Archive) Snapshot of a presidential administration’s promise to “clean up the swamp”, 2016-2020
Pay-to-Play, Pay2Play, Money-in-Politics is the Name of the Game
(But Polls Say the Public is No Fan of Big Money’s Takeover of U.S. Politics)
Yes, ‘clean up the swamp’ line worked in the 2016 presidential campaign, but reality set in post-campaign and the glimmer of real change is, well, somewhere else, as golden election mottos and presidential promises faded fast.
Of the first 17 people Donald Trump named to the Cabinet or Cabinet-ranking posts “have well over $9.5 billion in combined wealth… This collection of wealth is greater than that of the 43 million least wealthy American households combined.”
Let that sink in. Those first 17 people plucked by Trump to help him govern have more wealth “than over one-third of the 126 million households total in the US. Affluence of this magnitude in a US presidential Cabinet is unprecedented.”
Daily Pay-to-Play:
In about two-dozen states and localities last week — in red states and blue states — voters approved ballot initiatives or resolutions to fight big money and give everyday people more power in politics.
NY Times — Experts estimate campaign spending, which has risen inexorably in recent years, will easily surpass (in the 2016 federal elections) the $6.28 billion record set in the 2012 federal elections …
The 2016 election may have been the most expensive election in history according to analysis from the Center for Responsive Politics
Republicans and Democrats Platforms on Money-in-Politics:
The Republican platform calls for more money in politics. The Democratic platform calls for reforms and ‘staying competitive’ with the Republicans financing and spending.
The Republican platform, released on Monday, clearly states, “We oppose any restrictions or conditions that would discourage citizens from participating in the public square or limit their ability to promote their ideas, such as requiring private organizations to publicly disclose their donors to the government.” It further calls for the repeal of the McCain-Feingold limits on soft money donations to political parties and “raising or repealing contribution limits.”
This is one area where the two parties could not be further apart. The draft copy of the Democratic Party platform calls for constitutional amendments to overturn both the 2010 Citizens United and the 1976 Buckley v. Valeo Supreme Court decisions. It further endorses the creation of a public campaign financing system for congressional elections and the passage of legislation to increase disclosure of outside money.
“The Republican platform would create one political system for billionaires like Donald Trump and one for the rest of us,” David Donnelly, president of the campaign finance reform group Every Voice.