Molly Ivins September 12"Money, money, money, money, money, money, money, money, MONEY makes the world go round, world go round." -- Cabaret "Presidential Race to Set a Record." "Let's Break a Deal." "The Most Expensive Presidential Race in History." — Assorted headlines AUSTIN — Under the law in effect since 1974, individuals can give no more than $1,000 to a presidential campaign and corporate political action committees can give only $5,000. This year, Bob Dole and President Clinton will receive $74 million each for the general election campaign and $12 million for the convention, all from the pool of funds that we taxpayers provided via our Internal Revenue Service forms to keep the presidential elections honest. In the meantime, both parties expect to raise another $300 million before the election from corporations and rich individuals, all of it flowing softly and smoothly in unlimited amounts directly to the political parties themselves. In theory, "soft money" is not to go into presidential campaigns but is rather to be spent on voter registration, get-out-the-vote campaigns and television advertising that does not directly promote a presidential candidate. Shur. From January to June of this year, both parties had already exceeded all previous soft-money records, with the real campaign yet to come. Naturally, both parties officially deplore this highly unfortunate situation, but as they say in many other words, "the other guy is doing it, too" — which is what we used to say during the nuclear arms race. You recall that in June of last year Clinton and House Speaker Newt Gingrich shook hands on an agreement to create a bipartisan commission to reform campaign financing. Nothing ever came it. A genuinely bipartisan effort at campaign finance reform (Republican freshman Rep. Linda Smith of Washington fought like a Trojan) was killed in Congress. The corporate special interests are all over the loopholes like a duck on a June bug. Tax-deductible corporate donations to both conventions provided about $25 million per party, in addition to the $12 million in taxpayers' donations. The New York Times reports a dandy wrinkle stemming from a Supreme Court decision two months ago: Big donors can give to "independent committees" as long as their activities are not coordinated with those of presidential campaigns.
And what do the special interests get in return for these enormous donations? The Center for Responsive Politics offers us a few instructive hints. One of the matters that Congress is due to resolve before this session is over involves a House provision that prohibits defense contractors from billing the government for costs associated with mergers. Lockheed and Martin Marietta, which merged last year, have already submitted $855 million in bills for their corporate matrimony. Lockheed Martin's PACs have already contributed $692,350 to federal campaigns this cycle, 73 percent of it to Republicans. All told, defense contractors have given $5.3 million through PACs, 70 percent to Republicans — all this according to the Project on Government Oversight. The Small Business Job Protection Act signed by Clinton is pocked with special tax breaks for any number of not-so-small businesses. According to the center, it is worth millions of dollars to auto manufacturers and dealers, the securities and investment industry, and Archer-Daniels-Midland. For those who would like to find out precisely how they are being ripped off by this insane system of campaign financing, there is a dandy new Web page called "Follow the Money" run by the Center for Responsive Politics at "http://www.crp.org.". It enables you to follow political money state by state, and even candidate by candidate and industry by industry. "Follow the Money" also fills you in on the various kinds of reform debates and principles and tells you how you can get involved in the fight to change this massive corruption. Make no mistake: The special interests that give so generously to political campaigns are not making a foolish investment. They are rewarded with hundreds of millions in special tax breaks and competitive advantages. And you know who winds up paying the tab for that. Whenever a company buys a sweet deal through campaign contributions, the rest of us get stuck with that much more of the tab for keeping the country running and paying for necessary government programs. You may never have given a nickel to a political campaign in your life, but believe me, they are costing you a fortune. *** Molly Ivins is a columnist for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. COPYRIGHT 1996 CREATORS SYNDICATE, INC.
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