An Amendment That Clarifies Campaign Contributions

I suggest a Constitutional amendment to restrict all campaign contributions made to political candidates to be made only by human individuals of voting status, with an across-the-board maximum per individual per candidate per campaign. The maximum is to be determined by Congress and affordable to most all voters, with public funds given to those that can’t afford it. Federal, state, and local government shall require that any permissible contributions and expenditures be publicly disclosed. The judiciary shall not construe the spending of money to influence elections to be speech under the First Amendment.

The language of the above suggestion is not meant to be the wording of the actual amendment, but rather a simple description of the intention behind such an amendment. For instance, proper language would be required to describe just how Congress is to determine the across-the-board maximum.

There is currently a similar proposal in Bill H.J.Res.48, sponsored by Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., (introduced May 20, 2021), although the language there is not so clear, nor as directly stated as in the above suggestion. 

There is more than one way to state an acceptable amendment, all having the same intention.  For instance, the amendment could be stated to outlaw all private contributions to campaigns and allow only public funds that are disseminated by individual humans, again with an across-the-board maximum. 

In my view, such an amendment would be the largest, most effective single step to eliminate most of the corruption that results with the present money system. It will not eliminate all monies involved with political function. For instance, insider trading.

We often hear pleas by political leaders for “campaign finance reform,” but such pleas are primarily political actions taken to convince constituents that the acting politician is sincere, without real and effective action. The consequences of such token efforts are usually to complicate and add hundreds of pages to campaign-law books, often providing many loopholes. 

In my view, without such a simple and clearly stated amendment, the Constitution is deeply flawed.