A Pill for Money Fever

Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle was right Wednesday to push for the Shays-Meehan campaign finance reform bill to be passed before the Senate adjourns for Easter. It may take all-nighters to break Republican filibusters, but a few holdouts should not be permitted to thwart what even President Bush has called a “very good bill.”

The bill would ban soft money, which is unlimited and unregulated contributions that are funneled through party organizations. Never has reform been closer, but it still needs to make it through the Senate before it can be signed into law and mend, though not end, the corrupt money culture that has taken over Congress.

The need for reform has never been more pressing. In the 2000 election cycle, the two major parties raised almost $500 million. With 2002 shaping up as one of history’s most hotly contested elections for control of the House and Senate, money will play an even bigger role. According to the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics, the Democrats have already raised almost $69 million in soft money; the Republicans, a little over $100 million. So even as the Senate debates the Shays-Meehan bill, both parties are trying to raise as much soft money as they can.

Each election cycle, the numbers go up, up and away. The fact is that unless reform is passed, the money-raising fever that Congress has contracted is never going to be cured; it will only get worse.

That’s why it is critical to stop Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), the No. 1 opponent of reform, from destroying the bill. McConnell persists in trying to make what he innocuously calls “technical changes” to campaign finance reform. But the problem is that any amendments, good or bad, mean that the bill would have to go back to a House-Senate conference, where it would be killed or altered beyond recognition by House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.). As a last resort, both McConnell and Sen. Phil Gramm (R-Texas) are threatening to filibuster.

Opponents of reform like to claim that it would accomplish nothing. Then why are they so afraid of it? No, the Shays-Meehan bill will not stop all the excesses. Already the Bush White House is preparing to push the so-called “Pioneers,” who collected $100,000 or more in $1,000 contributions, even harder since they will be able to collect up to $2,000 as part of campaign reform. The Pioneer contributors (what they are first in is nothing to brag about) raised $113 million in 2000 for the Bush campaign. That’s $113 million, not to cure cancer or pay for good teachers but to finance one year of a political campaign. As we’ve said before, if that idea offends you, let Congress know.

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To Take Action: Sen. Mitch McConnell, (202) 224-2541, e-mail senator@mcconnell.senate. gov; Senate GOP leader Trent Lott, (202) 224-6253 or senatorlott @lott.senate.gov; Majority Leader Tom Daschle, (202) 224-2321 or https://daschle.senate.gov/webform.html; President Bush, (202) 456-1414 or president@white house.gov.