One, two, three... reclaim our country!
(Amendments 28 & 29)
Our Cheap PoliticiansWall Street balance sheets make this very clear. Last year, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, major banks and other financial institutions in receipt of $295 billion in TARP money pumped $114 million into Washington in lobbying and campaign contributions. As a stand-alone figure, $114 million sounds like a lot. Set against the torrent of cash flowing in the opposite direction, it is minimal. At 258,449 percent it has been called “the single best investment in history.” Our elected representatives are giving it away.
Why shouldn't they give it away? It's not theirs it's ours.
I used to think that the first order of business was getting the money out of politics. Logically it is, but procedurally it is not. The Campaign Finance Amendment probably cannot be passed using the means of amendment specified in our Constitution. If we were, heroically, able to pass the CFA we would have to repeat that heroic process again in the event that some other act of our "representative" government required our attention. In fact all the acts of our "representative" government presently require our attention.
Better to spend our heroic efforts first to enact the Recall, Referendum and Initiative Amendment and to keep the levers of power ready to hand for the occasions, such as now, when we really need to wield them.
The Recall, Referendum and Initiative and The Campaign Finance Amendments will become the 28th and 29th Amendments respectively.
[USpvp.org][Recall, Referendum and Initiative Amendment][Campaign Finance Amendment]
If you have comments or suggestions, email me at jfl@28amen.org