What Difference Will It Make?
Submitted by Katie Schlieper on Wed, 08/01/2007 - 20:29
So, the House voted overwhelmingly in favor of a revised ethics and lobbying overhaul bill yesterday and Gilbert Cruz at Time asks "how much good will this do?" That attention has been focused on the outsized influence of lobbyist money is undoubtedly a good thing, but assuming this bill passes the Senate (and several Senators are trying to stop it) it really is just the beginning.Once we do something about curbing the influence of certain sectors, we need to do the other half of the work and make voters the focus of campaigns, elections, and the business of Congress and that's where a full public financing program, as outlined in the Fair Elections Now Act sponsored by Sens. Durbin and Specter comes into play.