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The USA Campaign Finance Racket Alternative?

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posted on Apr, 17 2014 @ 12:59 PM
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Okay, I'm UTTERLY disgusted that the SCOTUS says corporate "persons" can donate however much. And individuals can donate as many $5,200s as they want to however many candidates they want. Basically setting the sickening precedent that Money = Speech as a standard.
I've talked before about doing away with lobbying and campaign donation; in my opinion, there should be NO lobbying, and NO donations, not even to Colbert's SuperPAC (though I did contribute $5 to that)...

Also, term limits, minimum wage, no pension, and selection by picking a pool of candidates like being called for Jury Duty (not necessarily picked, just called).

Give each candidate 15 minutes of air-time (Public Service Announcements) to be donated by the networks (TV, cable, and radio); no defamation of the other guy. Three month campaign trail. Period. No travelling. Just state your case, and have a seat. We'll get back to you.

Now - since that is decidedly NOT the system we have in place, and it's unlikely I'll be elected for anything ever, as an unemployed civilian female with no interest in politics except to hate them, what can I do?

Here is the question of the OP:

When you filed your taxes, and it had the question: Would you like to contribute $3 to the Presidential Campaign Fund? This will neither change your taxes nor your income. ...what did you select?

I, as per usual, checked, NO.

I can't imagine how it works in the retarded tax code...but suppose EVERY taxpayer said "Yeah, sure, whatever. No change out of my pocket, go ahead." Let's say there are 150,000,000 taxpayers (even without an income I got the choice to donate when we filed Married/Jointly). That's 450,000,000 million dollars.

So - nothing out of our pockets? Well, WHERE IS THAT MONEY COMING FROM? The US Treasury? Is there already a budget? If I say yes, who pays that $3 for my donation?

$450,000,000 should be PLENTY to run a Presidential Campaign season lasting only 3 months, even without the donated PSA slots from broadcast networks. And it wouldn't be 'deductible'. It actually could work!

Could we then get rid of lobbying altogether? And what if some people said "no" - do they then not get to vote? No, everyone gets to vote, regardless of how you decided about the $3. ("Beggars" I mumbled to myself as I checked "NO") So - you're not buying the right to vote, and you don't get to pick the candidate you want to donate to. It's just a general fund from which the candidates draw equal amounts to work with. Say we end up with 3 nominees. Each one gets $150,000,000, 15 minutes of free airtime, and the rest goes to....what?

But most significantly, what did you, the American Taxpayers tell them when you filed your mandatory return? And does anyone know how much they gather up during tax season? Are there any statistics of how much MORE they milk out of us besides our "taxes" (if we're not rich enough to avoid them altogether)?




edit on 4/17/2014 by BuzzyWigs because: (no reason given)



posted on Apr, 18 2014 @ 02:27 PM
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In addition to that, we need to pick ALL of our politicians like we pick people for Jury Duty. At random, no person should be able to decide that they want the job, because that LAST person you want as president, senator, governor, mayor, or even town supervisor is someone that WANTS the job. They ALL have their hand in the till. We would obviously have to have a pool to choose from, like so many from each party affiliation, which would be narrowed down to the 2 or 3 best representing their party affiliation. You can opt out, but nobody can volunteer to be selected. After this , then NO donations, & the donated airtime like you said. You can be selected and end up in the job, next cycle the incumbent would run against the newly selected candidates. ONCE, then you go home, back to your life & done with public service - unless randomly selected again..



posted on Apr, 18 2014 @ 05:25 PM
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a reply to: supamang

Thank you very much for your response.
I agree. It's a racket, what is going on with politics and money now.

So.....apparently no one else has any opinion about the $3 'donation' that costs you nothing, and does not impact your income nor your taxes.

I don't get it. Apparently, no one else on ATS can respond either.


Thanks for your acknowledgment.


edit on 4/18/2014 by BuzzyWigs because: (no reason given)



posted on Apr, 19 2014 @ 07:29 AM
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Okay, I'm going to shamelessly bump this thread back onto the boards...
this question was largely inspired by Jesse Ventura's OTG and AMA about running for President. I probably blew it with the title, but I'd really like to know what ATS members - and ESPECIALLY Jesse Ventura - think about the way the system is set up.
The $3 tax-return 'contribution' that costs us nothing and does not change our AGI or tax/refund...

where does that money go?
Do you guys check yes or no on that question?

Perhaps OFFTHEGRID will see this and respond...
or not. But I'll be happy to move the question to that forum - if we are allowed to make new threads on it for the purpose of asking questions.




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