John Edwards Proposals for Changes

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Today In New Hampshire Edwards Outlines Agenda To Return The Power In Washington To Regular People

First indent is the Edwards bullet point, following are my assessments of pros and cons of the specifics

  • Reforming Campaign Finance to Strengthen Small Donors
    • Reduces maximum contribution from $2300 to $1000, and does matching only on the first $100, at an 8 to one ratio, so a $100 contribution nets $900 in funds, and a $1000 contribution nets $1900 in funds.
      • Pros: Reduces the effect of big donations and bundling of donations.
      • Cons: The Supreme court may find the $1000 limit excessive. Additionally, the problem of money in politics is driven by costs, specifically one cost, the cost of advertising on over the air television. Seeing how we, the public, own the airwaves, it makes a lot of sense to add airtime for candidates to the mix for broadcast licenses.
  • Ending the Unique Power of Lobbyists
    • Would prevent lobbyists from making campaign donations, and from bundling donations. Would extend the ban on lobbying after leaving government positions to 5 years. Add a “constitutional” line item veto. Increasing disclosure requirements for lobbyists.
      • Pros: Disclosure is good, as is an extended period between government and lobbying jobs.
      • Cons: Prohibiting lobbyists from making political donations is flat out wrong. It’s more restrictive than the limitations on active duty military. Definition of lobbyists is a difficult thing. A “constitutional” line item veto would likely require amending the constitution, which is unlikely, at best.
  • Strengthening the Voice of Ordinary Citizens
    • Requires a voter verifiable paper ballot. Allow election day registration. Eliminate felon disenfranchisement. Give DC residents a congressional representative. Fight voter suppression. Have a biennial national town hall of over 1 million people working together to solve problems.
      • Pros: The voting proposals are good. Getting DC a representative is good.
      • Cons: DC really should be a full state. It has twice as many people in it as Alaska or Wyoming. The biennial national town hall is just silly. It sounds like a Grateful Dead concert.
  • Promote Open and Democratic Media
    • Require that real public interest obligations be a part of all broadcast licenses. Require net neutrality. Universal broadband by 2010. Make media ownership more difficult.
      • Pros: All good ideas.
      • Cons: Getting this done will be tough. In terms of universal broadband, I believe that this will require some level of government ownership of the “last mile” of wire to the house, which is how it happened in Japan and Korea, but this will be nearly impossible to accomplish in the current political/social environment in the United States.

The only one I truly disagree on is the ban on lobbyist contributions, which I think is just plain wrong. Everyone should be able to contribute, but it is rather blue sky.

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