Bring back the briefcases

The Supreme Court has issued its ruling on the case of an Alabama Businessman named Shaun McCutcheon, who wanted to contribute to a lot of congressional candidates but ran afoul of the aggregate contribution rule.

He didn’t challenge the limit of $2,600 per candidate, but argues he should be allowed to give that amount to as many candidates as he wants, no matter how much that adds up to.

And by a vote of 5-4 the Supreme Court has now agreed.

Barbara Lawton, of Americans for Campaign Reform, sees an unholy complicity. “We have seen no leadership from the president or from Congress and in some sense they rode in on this horse but they’re not going to shoot it.”

But the court has determined that this is what the Constitution requires, even if we seem to be slip-sliding into oligarchy.

It’s just that – shouldn’t there be a way for us to see what it really looks like when wealthy people start calling the shots?

If Congress is afraid to control the money, maybe it could at least pass a law on how that money is turned over.

It should be a law requiring that people who give more than, say, $50,000 during an election cycle have to hand it over in person, and in cash, at the Capitol building, by putting a briefcase on the candidate’s desk so he can count the money to make sure it’s all there.

And C-SPAN would record the hand-off and then televise it in a in a little box during Congressional debates. Maybe while the candidate in question is actually speaking.
that would be reality television.