An Unprecedented Sellout

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  • Dale Eisman
Statement by Common Cause President Miles Rapoport on House Passage of "Cromnibus" Bill

“With this vote, a majority of the people’s representatives in the House have agreed to an unprecedented sell-out of the public interest. We are dismayed at reports that a majority of senators and the White House are prepared to support it; we implore them to reconsider.

“The bill provides the largest increase in campaign contribution limits in our history, permitting a single donor to contribute more than $1.5 million to each political party in each election cycle. It guarantees that federal contractors doing billions of dollars worth of business with government each year can avoid public scrutiny as they contribute millions of dollars to the public officials who effectively control those contracts. It invites Wall Street speculators to again gamble with our economy, assuring them that taxpayers will pick up the tab when the bets go bad.”

“It is a disaster, pure and simple.”

“The most distressing part of this story is today’s acknowledgement that President Obama and Sen. Reid are willing to accept these proposals as part of a deal to keep the government open. The Republican leadership’s hostility to sensible campaign finance laws is well-documented, but Sen. Reid focused the 2014 campaign around a vigorous attack on the influence of big money in politics; having lost that election he now seems prepared to betray the principles he spent the campaign espousing.”

“The President’s acquiescence in this proposal is equally breathtaking. He won his office on a promise to change the way Washington works; if he signs this bill, he will have changed it for the worse, returning us to an era in which big money and the corruption that always accompanies it were firmly in charge of our government. Instead of that, he should veto this bill and demand that Congress pass a clean continuing resolution to keep the government running.”