Some Serious Bribe Reform

I was speaking this morning with my cousin, Dan, about potential government oversight laws and my opinion was that it is virtually impossible for the government to make any effective oversight policy, if only because of special interests of lawmakers and their constituent friends and companies.

How could you trust congressmen to set fair policy overseeing certain industries (public companies, education, automakers, etc.) when those industries pour tons of money into the campaigns of those same congressman? You obviously cannot, and that is why it’s virtually impossible to enact any real reform when it comes to education (NEA and AFT funneling tons of money), automakers (UAW), corporations (multi-millionaire CEOs), etc.

Call it whatever you want—”donations” or “campaign funds”—but, any euphemism you come up with is just that: a euphemism… a euphemism for what it really is: bribery.

So, do we just throw our hands up and forget about any chance of real reform? How do we get around this impossible obstacle of bribery?

Dan responded with a great idea. In fact, it is so great that it would unfortunately not work simply because it would eliminate all special interest money and therefore no lawmaker would in his right mind vote for it, as it would essentially be the end for his cushy ride.

So, what is this phenomenal idea? Simple. Outlaw any and all direct contributions to politicians and their campaigns, and replace them with a strictly anonymous alternative, say, for example, a donation clearinghouse. So, no longer would a teachers’ union be allowed to donate to a particular senator’s campaign; now, the union would only be allowed to donate to a clearinghouse that would then transfer the donation anonymously to that senator’s campaign.

Of course, there would have to be all sorts of protections in place to ensure that the donor cannot simply produce receipts to curry favor with that senator and that all donations are in fact strictly altruistic and not underhanded bribes. But if a system like that were somehow possible, it would address this bribery problem that is rampant all across the country and might actually pave the way for real reforms, where lawmakers can be freed to do what is best for the country and not best for a few special interests supporting them and their lifestyles.

Again, the problem inherent in this solution is that in legislating something like this, lawmakers would essentially be legislating away a monumental chunk of their coffers and, so, it’s highly unlikely to ever happen, unless you can get a majority of honest and altruistic lawmakers, which is a laughable pipe dream.

Until then, though, I don’t have much trust and faith in letting the government oversee and reform too much, because—again—any such oversight and reform would most likely be aimed at benefiting special interests, and not the public at large.

This entry was posted on Sunday, September 6th, 2009 and is filed under Featured, National Politics, Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.