Andrew Samwick points us to this rather disturbing portrait of Max Baucus and his vast web of lobbyists. Did you know he’s received over $4 million dollars nearly $5 million dollars from the health care industry? Samwick writes:
Why should it be legal to make a political contribution to a candidate who is not running for an office that represents you as a constituent? I do not think it should be. Imagine how different this senator’s incentives would be if he could only raise money from the residents of Montana as individuals and not from organized interests.
Well, he’d certainly have a lot less money since he’s from the sparsely populated state of Montana, but so would his potential opponents. And he’d be a lot more beholden to the interests of his state rather than the interests of the health lobby. Whether that would have produced a better plan out of the finance committee is hard to say.
The lobbying/campaign contribution nexus is certainly foul, but I would not support banning out-of-state donations. After all, it certainly effects me whether Baucus wins or falls to a Republican, even though I live nowhere near Montana, so I should be able to have a say in it. I think the real solution is expanded public financing, although this is pretty clearly a pie-in-the-sky solution.Report