#12.
MOST IMPORTANT OF ALL: GET BIG MONEY OUT OF POLITICS
To see this video directly on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=079LXdfyh74
Over
the past two months, the videos I’ve done with MoveOn.org have detailed several
ways to make the economy work for the many, not the few: raising the minimum
wage to $15 an hour, making public higher education free, busting up the big
banks, expanding Social Security, making polluters pay, raising the estate tax,
strengthening unions, ending corporate welfare, helping families succeed
economically, and letting all Americans buy into Medicare.
But
none of these is possible if we don’t get big money out of politics.
In
fact, nothing we
need to do as a nation is possible unless we limit the political power of the
moneyed interests.
So we made one more video – the one accompanying this post – and it’s incredibly important you share this one, too.
At
the rate we’re going, the 2016 election is likely to be the most expensive in
history – and the moneyed interests will be responsible for most of it. Our
democracy is broken, and we must fix it.
Easy
to say, but how do we do it?
First
and most immediately, require full disclosure of all original sources of
campaign money –
so the public knows who’s giving what to whom, and can hold politicians
accountable if they do favors for contributors while neglecting their
responsibilities to all of us.
If
Congress won’t enact a law requiring such full disclosure, the Federal Election
Commission has the power to do it on its own and the SEC can do it for public
corporations – which, by the way, are major campaign spenders.
Meanwhile,
the President should issue an executive order requiring all federal contractors
to fully disclose their political contributions. There’s a growing movement to
encourage him to do just that.
Next,
our government should provide matching funds for small-donor contributions –
say $3 in public dollars for every $1 dollar from a small donor. Those public
dollars could come from a check-off on your income tax return indicating you
want, say, $15 of your taxes devoted to public financing of elections.
Third
and most importantly, we must reverse the Supreme Court’s 5-4 First Amendment
decisions holding that money is speech and corporations have the political
rights of people –
and that therefore no laws can be enacted limiting the amount of money wealthy
individuals or big corporations can spend on elections.
We
have to work hard for a constitutional amendment to overturn “Citizen’s
United” – with the understanding that we’ll either succeed in amending our
Constitution, or we’ll build a social movement powerful enough to influence the
Supreme Court, just like the movement that led to the historic “Brown v. the
Board of Education” decision.
Ultimately
we need Supreme Court justices who understand that the freedom of speech of
most Americans is drowned out when big money can spend as much as it wants, to
be as loud as it needs to be.
The
fundamental rule for an economy that works for everyone is a democracy that
works, period.
ROBERT B. REICH, Chancellor’s Professor of Public Policy at
the University of California at Berkeley and Senior Fellow at the Blum Center
for Developing Economies, was Secretary of Labor in the Clinton administration.
Time Magazine named him one of the ten most effective cabinet secretaries of
the twentieth century. He has written thirteen books, including the best
sellers “Aftershock" and “The Work of Nations." His latest,
"Beyond Outrage," is now out in paperback. He is also a founding
editor of the American Prospect magazine and chairman of Common Cause. His new
film, "Inequality for All," is now available on Netflix, iTunes, DVD,
and On Demand.
