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Should corporations, unions and trade associations (and I would also include individuals) be permitted to write checks directly to politicians and parties? Absolutely! Furthermore, they should be allowed to contribute as much as they desire as many times as they so wish. The dirty little secret is, they already do! Unfortunately they do it through a maze of Political Action Committees and other clandestine methods. Just ask Rep. Jack Murtha (D) Pennsylvania a.k.a. ABSCAM Jack!

If the politicians were really interested in true campaign finance reform, they would make all contributions above board and unlimited. The key would be to make sure that every dime is reported to the Federal Election Commission. That way, as has been pointed out in other posts, there would be a paper trail of accountability when an issue or vote came up. Politicians being held accountable for their actions? Wow, what a concept. Unfortunately that is the last thing they want.

No, instead it's better to have almost a hundred thousand dollars bundled and kept in your household freezer. Talk about cold hard cash! I would be interested in hearing congressman Jefferson's (D) Louisiana explanation of how it all ended up in the freezer of all places. Now while I've pointed to two Democrat politicians, they are not alone in being corrupted by big money. It's just that for some strange reason, they are held up by their party. In some cases, they're given prestigious positions even after being implicated in wrong doing.

If politicians had to report where they got all the money in their campaign war chests and why they voted a particular way on a certain issue, perhaps we'd find a few more of them being booted out at the end of their terms. Instead, without accountability, they can continue on taking in all that cash and voting in ways where the voters can't see their true motivation for serving in the "public" sector.

Furthermore, with all campaign contributions above board, a whole slew of lobbyists might actually have to go out and get real jobs. Clandestine cash contributions and political action committees have become a full service sector of the American economy. They hire hundreds of people to push agendas in Washington that are in their own special interests. These interests are seldom in the interest of the people.

Keeping campaign contributions above board is what will really clean up the money that corrupts politics. But if we did that, then people like Norman Hsu might find themselves out of a job. Oops, that's right, he already is!

Learn more about this author, Keith Graff.
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