US campaign Donation Policy Reform

Liberty
1

US Campaign Finance Reform Policy Proposal

Objective

To eliminate the current process of unrestricted donations to political campaigns by individuals and corporations, replacing it with a more equitable system that reduces the influence of money in politics.

Key Provisions

  1. Donation Limits

    • Set a maximum campaign contribution limit of $1,000 per person, $1,000 per federal and $1,000 per state elections. Only being allowed to donate to the state you lived in the longest in your last tax return.
    • This limit applies to all US citizens and permanent residents aged 18 and older.
    • The limit is per election cycle and applies to all federal elections (presidential, congressional, etc.).

  2. Corporate and Organizational Donations

    • Prohibit all donations from corporations, unions, PACs, and other organizations.
    • Only allow donations from individual persons.

  3. Penalties for Violation

    • Impose a maximum 20-year jail sentence for individuals who pay others to donate under their personal limit.
    • Minimum 2 year if 5 or more people were coerced
    • This applies to both the person making the payment and the person accepting payment to make a donation.

  4. Enforcement

    • Establish a dedicated task force within the Federal Election Commission (FEC) to investigate and prosecute violations.
    • Allow multiple branches of the government to open investigations to reduce chance of corruption with neither being able to claim dominion over a case

  5. Transparency

    • Require real-time reporting of all campaign contributions.
    • Create a public database of all donations, searchable by donor name and recipient. All campaign bank accounts should be public for anyone to look into, including deposits and withdrawals/payments with a data rich metadata for each transaction (to/from/EIN’s)

  6. Family Exception Clause

    • To prevent potential abuse by corrupt government officials, cases involving family members paying each other for donations will not be actively pursued.
    • This exception applies only to immediate family members (parents, children, siblings, and spouses).
    • The burden of proof for establishing a legitimate family relationship lies with the accused parties.

  7. Public Funding

    • Explore options for increased public funding of campaigns to offset the reduction in private donations.

  8. Constitutional Amendment

    • Pursue a constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United and related Supreme Court decisions that have equated money with speech in campaign finance.

Implementation

  • This policy will take effect starting with the next federal election cycle following its passage.
  • A 6-month grace period will be provided for campaigns to adjust their fundraising strategies and return any non-compliant donations.

Review and Adjustment

  • Establish a bipartisan commission to review the impact of this policy after each federal election cycle.
  • Empower the commission to recommend adjustments to donation limits based on inflation and other relevant factors.

This policy aims to level the playing field in political campaigns, reduce the influence of wealthy donors and special interests, and restore faith in the democratic process. By limiting donations to a modest amount per individual, we seek to ensure that elected officials are more responsive to their constituents rather than to large donors.

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Totally agree. I would ad that some mechanism would need to be set up for free air time on Main Stream and social media for all candidates on an equal basis due to the removal of all the corporate funding.
Public office was meant to be a public service not just for the very rich and/or the selected class the powerful determine.
Public officials were meant to be for a short period of a few yrs to actually SERVE the public not as a career choice profession.

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