The campaign finance system is corrupt. Spending is out of control, and there are various loopholes infederal campaign finance law. Money buys access and influence, which effectively causes the majority of Americans to have no real capacity toinfluence public policy. State and federal legislation is needed to fightcorruption and unjust influence, to ensure the public's right to know where acandidate's money comes from, to enable all candidates to competeequitably in elections, and to allow maximum citizen participation in thepolitical process. Rock the Vote believes that the McCain-FeingoldCampaign Finance Reform Bill, in its

TheMcCain-Feingold bill proposes to end the soft money system by prohibiting candidates and national political parties from raising soft money. Soft moneyis a financial contribution intended to be used for issues, advertising that doesnot advocate on behalf of, or against, a specific candidate. Political partiescurrently use the legality of soft-money donations as a loophole in currentcampaign finance law, finding ways to channel this money into candidates'campaigns. The McCain-Feingold bill prohibits state political parties fromspending soft money on activities which affect federal elections. The currentpractice of raising unlimited soft money contributions from unions and wealthy individuals, and then channeling this money into federalelections, would end. The national parties would be required to raise all oftheir funds under the limits and restrictions in the law. Rock the Voteadvocates the signing the McCain-Feingold bill into law. Caps must beplaced on campaign finance spending. Eliminating the soft-money loophole isone way to monitor, and hopefully restrict, the influence of corporate intereston candidates.

rm is to take place we must enforce the laws that we set in place. Laws that are not enforced are worthless. We must be ready to punish a candidate and make him or her face the consequences, whether it be elimination from the race or removal from office. Reform is needed to fix our crooked and corrupt Congress, and we must be willing to punish those who break the law. One option that we should consider is that of Jack E. Lohman, a business man from Milwaukee, WI. Under his plan special interest and corporate donations would be eliminated. Instead, taxpayers would fund political campaigns. (CNN.com 2001) Special interests and corporations spend 750 million on campaigns. As it was explained, this hurts taxpayers when purchasing goods and when paying taxes for corporate welfare. By eliminating these donors politicians would not be affected by outside interests and would be free to do what is best for the people. The 750 million dollars for campaigns would come from the taxpayers and only cost $5 dollars a year. After cuts from corporate welfare and wasteful government spending this would save taxpayers $495 to $995 dollars a year, not to mention price drops as a result of reduced corporate spending on political campaigns. This would put more money in the hands of the taxpayer to buy more products helping the economy. Most important, politicians would not be swayed by monetary interest offered to them for help in other areas. Donors not representing the public, money, not people and issues deciding races, politicians voting for campaign funds instead of the public, corporations risking the safety of people, these are all problems that could be fixed by reforming campaign finance.

More public financing of campaigns.

Banning or limiting political action committee (PAC) donations.

Corporations make up a large portion of the groups that give generous donations. These corporations do not care what is good for the people, all they care about is their own bottom line. If this means shipping unsafe or unhealthy products, that is what will be done. Food companies have donated $41 million dollars on the promise by candidates, that once in office, will not make stricter regulations on e-coli protection. E-coli is a deadly bacteria that infects numerous people every year. But as a result of donations by food companies, government will not regulate these companies to protect Americans. Food companies are not alone, the cotton industry is also at fault. Safety standards that some companies include on night wear voluntarily because of the great risk of burns, are not national law. The cotton industry gives generous contributions to Congress in hopes that any legislation concerning safety standards will be shut down. These are safety standards that have already saved dozens of lives and could save many more. Campaign money fr

Some common words found in the essay are:
Election Commission, Revenue Act, Common Cause, Milwaukee WI, Americans Food, Campaign Finance, Center ResponsivePolitics, Robert Reich, American Prospect, REFORM HA, campaign finance, soft money, finance reform, campaign finance reform, fecgov 2001, issue ads, godfrey 2000, political parties, corporate welfare, free speech, money contributions, soft money contributions, political action committee, spent phony issueads, support oppose congressional,
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