On Wednesday, April 2, the United States Supreme Court ruled that any cap on the overall amount a person can spend to influence an election is unconstitutional. Following on the heels of the court's previous decision in Citizens United, the McCutcheon ruling will allow unlimited spending to influence our nation's political process. [...]
Several studies find money gives you access to members of Congress and their staff: Contributors have disproportionately better access. And these studies were conducted before the McCutcheon decision, when the total donations to candidates, parties or PACs within an election cycle were still limited at a whopping $123,000. [...]
More than half of Americans want the federal government to limit power plant emissions and take other steps to curb climate change,moves opposed by the wealthy — and politically generous — oil and gas industry. On issue after issue after issue, the will of the American people is already up against the often-insurmountable obstacles created by well-heeled corporations armed with campaign contributions. And now it's just going to get worse. An analysis by the organization Demos found that the McCutcheon ruling could release more than $1 billion in additional election spending from wealthy donors through 2020.
