The extent of the money in politics problem, how we got here (from a legal perspective), and what we can do to create a democracy in which the strength of a citizen’s voice does not depend on the size of her wallet.
In 2012, just 61 large donors to Super PACs giving an average of $4.7 million each matched the $285.2 million in grassroots contributions from more than 1,425,500 small donors to the major party presidential candidates.
Outside spending organizations reported $1.11 billion in spending to the FEC through the final reporting deadline in the 2012 cycle. That’s already a 200% increase over total 2008 outside spending.
This memo outlines how the Justices lined up on the issues in Randall v. Sorrell, provides some analysis of the opinions, and touches on the implications for future reform efforts.
Our data sets were provided and cleaned by Public Campaign. For the purposes of this report, Public Campaign used federal campaign contribution data made public by the Federal Election Commission (FEC) and then refined and augmented by the Center for Responsive Politics (CRP).
By issuing this toothless code of conduct, the Supreme Court attempts to circumvent necessary reforms and enables more lavish gifts and lucrative speaking engagements from their wealthy patrons.
The Supreme Court today turned back a constitutional challenge to spending limits for student government campaigns at the University of Montana, denying review of a June 2007 ruling by the Ninth Circuit that upheld the limits. The Supreme Court's action is a victory for the Associated Students of the University of Montana ("ASUM") and the University, which argued that the limits on campaign spending serve to assure all students, regardless of their financial circumstances, an equal opportunity to win election to student government.
In a fair tax system, everyone pays their fair share, no one pays more than they can afford, and the government raises enough money to fund public goods that benefit us all, like education, housing, transportation, and health care. But the current tax code is inequitable.
Today, congressional Republicans are pushing tax reform proposals that would cost the country over $5 trillion and would likely widen the racial wealth gap and slow economic growth.
Lowering the corporate tax rate will cost the country at least $522 billion over 10 years, money that should be invested in public goods that benefit us all, not further enriching the already wealthy.
Our Taxes Explained series aims to make tax policy clear and accessible. We want people to know what’s at stake and understand how Trump’s tax cuts are designed specifically to benefit the ultra-rich and corporations.
