There Is One Campaign Finance Regulation That Rand Paul Supports
by Sam Stein and Paul Blumenthal
Posted: 04/23/2014 11:22 am EDT
WASHINGTON -- Sen. Rand Paul detailed on Tuesday the one element of campaign finance reform that he believed would pass constitutional muster and that he, personally, could support. The thing is, it's already the law.
In an appearance at the University of Chicago's Institute of Politics, the Kentucky Republican said he backed legislation that would prohibit the ability of federal contract recipients to plow money back into the political process. Though he kept his remarks broad (as he has in the past), Paul hinted that he supported prohibiting contractors from donating to campaigns and, potentially, from lobbying Congress.
"I think there is campaign finance reform -- this is campaign finance reform that I support that would be held constitutional -- what I would do is I would take all government contracts and I would put a clause in them that says: 'If you want to do work with the government, if you're going to get this 10 billion dollar contract if you're a defense contractor, or if you're a big union and you're going to get a big contract, you sign the contract, but part of the clause of the contract says your contract is only valid if you don’t participate in the donation to candidates.'"
"You can decide exactly what that means," Paul added, "whether it is a restriction or not. But that's where, to me, the real unseemliness is. It's corporations and unions, frankly, that get money from government –- let's say you get $10 million, your first million is to buy a good lobbyist to go lobby for more. It is sort of insulting to have taxpayer money go to an entity that turns around and then lobbies for more with that money. And I think that's where the biggest corrupting of the system comes from and conflict of interest is."
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