Congress in Crisis: So You Want to Reform Congress?
Barnes, Fred
THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR VOL. 22, NO. 9 / SEPTEMBER 1989 9 CONGRESS IN CRISIS Fred Barnes SO YOU WANT TO REFORM CONGRESS? To remind senators and House members why they were sent to Washington, we...
...If that occurs, incumbents will be desperate to get on TV...
...It's one I've come to reluctantly: a limitation on congressional terms to twelve years...
...House Republicans would trim the number from twelve to three, with only one in an election year...
...Union PACs, however, still fund Democratic challengers...
...They absorb Washington's ways by osmosis...
...16 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR SEPTEMBER 1989 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR VOL...
...Spending limits, Bush said, will only keep people from participating in campaigns...
...He'd have won...
...Now the situation is different...
...That's good...
...After twelve years (earlier for some), they're creatures of Washington, usually safe from defeat and skeptical of sentiment outside the Beltway...
...President Bush's reform package is good, as far as it goes...
...O nce PACs, which handed out $156 million in 1988, are killed, money for campaigns will have to come from somewhere else...
...In truth, businesses, unions, and trade associations can get all the access they want on Capitol Hill just for the asking...
...For the time being, Congress is unlikely in the extreme to legislate free TV In judging proposed reforms, the standard should be whether they make elections for the Senate and House more competitive, and keep members from adhering to the inside-the-Beltway playbook...
...Washington is a wonderful compromise between New York and the boondocks...
...With a virtually unlimited supply of PAC contributions available in Washington, is it any wonder that 98 percent to 99 percent of House members are reelected time and again...
...But they're not buying anything...
...This, in turn, allows incumbents to ignore their constituents...
...The franking privilege lets a member of Congress send newsletters, announcements, and other thinly disguised propaganda to constituents with no postage...
...I'd be willing to accept this as a last resort, especially if the alternative is Congress-as-usual...
...So it'll be awfully hard to get a 12-year limit through Congress...
...True, 34-plus years of Democratic control of the House haven't been good for America...
...The liventy-second Amendment limits Presidents to two consecutive terms, andthat's worked fairly well...
...The learning curve on Capitol Hill is such that most senators and congressmen know the ropes by their second or third year in office...
...Thomas Jefferson said America needs a revolution every twenty years, or something like that...
...I've accommodated for that...
...812 3"37 7251 - • F / time for candidates...
...812 3"37 7251 - • F / time for candidates...
...PACs of all ideological and partisan stripes must be happy with the status quo...
...It's worked well...
...I concede that Senate and House members aren't suicidal...
...The standard should be whether they make elections for the Senate and House more competitive, and keep members from adhering to the inside-the-Beltway playbook...
...The Tkventy-second Amendment saved us from ourselves...
...If anything," Bush said in June, public financing "would strengthen the status quo...
...PACs, which are concentrated in Washington, pull members of Congress away from the folks at home...
...After four years, the budget chairmen grow weary of advocating spending cuts and tax hikes...
...Steny Hoyer of Maryland, the new chairman of the House Democratic caucus, was elected in 1981, in leadership posts by 1985...
...Or Republican Larry Hopkins of Kentucky, whose permanent campaign treasury has $608,792...
...They're still worried about reelection...
...Big deal...
...Or maybe they have, and just don't want to give competing special interests even the slightest edge...
...I concede that Senate and House members aren't suicidal...
...It's worked well...
...Under this scheme, it would take ten to twenty years to get Congress completely on the 12-year track...
...They'd find this out if they stopped paying...
...But at least they propose some cuts...
...In truth, businesses, unions, and trade associations can get all the access they want on Capitol Hill just for the asking...
...He overstated it, but he was drifting in the right direction...
...Don't raise the objection that this won't work in House races, where TV and radio aren't cost-effective and thus aren't used...
...That would enhance the two parties...
...Democratic challengers got campaign funds from labor PACs, which made contests with Republican incumbents more cornpetitive...
...To remind senators and House members why they were sent to Washington, we should cut back on PACs, the frank, campaign stashes, and lifetime tenure...
...As the law now stands, House members in office in 1980 can convert that money to personal use when they retire...
...The answer is reform," he said...
...It isn't PACs—they're only part of the problem...
...And the problem isn't one-party rule in Congress either...
...Michael Malbin, an aide to Defense Secretary Dick Cheney and co-author of Vital Statistics on Congress, 1989-1990, says it takes at least $200,000 for a challenger to run a credible campaign for the House...
...I'm sure I'd have voted for Reagan if he'd run for a third term in 1988...
...Coelho wasn't the only one...
...Imagine how they'd act if they lingered past four years as chairmen...
...They don't...
...As chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, Rep...
...The learning curve on Capitol Hill is such that most senators and congressmen know the ropes by their second or third year in office...
...House Republicans would trim the number from twelve to three, with only one in an election year...
...They'd want no cuts...
...Every night in Washington, members hold fundraising receptions to which PAC officials flock with their checks...
...Or maybe they have, and just don't want to give competing special interests even the slightest edge...
...In both cases, the programs had permanent friends in Congress...
...It's almost like Invasion of the Body Snatchers come true, except there's no need to put big pods by their beds at night...
...These bloated campaign funds are chiefly used by incumbents to scare off challengers...
...Who would want to run against Democrat Dan Rostenkowski, the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, when he's got $1,034,438 stashed in a campaign fund...
...In 1988, Democratic candidates for Congress got 47 percent of their campaign funds from PACs...
...I think strong campaign reforms are needed...
...Who would want to run against Democrat Dan Rostenkowski, the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, when he's got $1,034,438 stashed in a campaign fund...
...It may take an election in which congressional ethics, perks, and money-grubbing—Washington ills—are a major issue...
...He'd have won...
...Since TV and radio stations are a public trust, they should be compelled to provide free airtime for congressional candidates, some of it in prime viewing hours...
...But the odds are better on killing or curbing PACs...
...We need reforms that curtail the role of special interests, enhance the role of the individual and strengthen the parties...
...A few decades ago, they'd have been voted out of office if they put on Washington airs...
...What members of Congress do with their personal finances is also important...
...Coelho resigned from the House in June after it was revealed he'd purchased a junk bond from Drexel Burnham under questionable circumstances...
...Even the duds figure out what it takes to get along in Washington—and stay, year after year...
...Eliminating PACs is good for starters, but let's be clear about what it will achieve...
...Too wonderful, it turns out...
...By then, they're capable of chairing a committee...
...Eliminating PACs is good for starters, but let's be clear about what it will achieve...
...The momentum from that election soon dissipated...
...WAJI, 951 FORT CENTRAL OFFICE, BOX 62, BLOOMiNGTON„ 7..ELEPHO,HF...
...By their fourth or fifth year, they've mingled enough with their colleagues so they've either emerged as leaders, capable of being Speaker or whip or caucus chairman, or been sidetracked as followers...
...Now the situation is different...
...The result is that real change occurs only fleetingly—when the voters register their desire for it in seismic terms, as they did in 1980 with the Reagan landslide...
...television market...
...But at least they propose some cuts...
...PACs do not buy the votes of senators and House members by giving them campaign money...
...Another overdue reform is a hike in the $1,000 limit on individual contributions...
...But the odds are better on killing or curbing PACs...
...By then, they're capable of chairing a committee...
...Giving $5,000 to Tom Foley every two years probably makes PAC managers feel more secure...
...Nearly every reform plan, including Boren's, would take away this privilege...
...Something awful happens to our elected officials when they get to Washington...
...Life is pretty luxurious...
...WAJI, 951 FORT CENTRAL OFFICE, BOX 62, BLOOMiNGTON„ 7..ELEPHO,HF...
...They love the life-style in Washington...
...And why not...
...Tony Coelho realized this in the early 1980s...
...Why else would they try so hard to maintain it...
...That's good...
...There'sa way around this—and around the entire issue of money in political campaigns...
...Fred Barnes is a senior editor of the New Republic...
...They reduce competition...
...verybody's got it wrong about campaign spending in Senate and House races, incumbent power, and political action committees...
...The more they rely on PACs to finance their campaigns, the more Washingtonized they become...
...But had Republicans ruled the House, there'd still be lots to complain about...
...In Washington, senators and House members quickly fall in with the permanent establishment of bureaucrats,lobbyists, political consultants, journalists, lawyers, flacks, and representatives of businesses, unions, trade associations, and other special interests...
...That's not attacking what's really wrong...
...I've saved the most radical proposal for last...
...Not all of them succumb—Republican Representative Henry Hyde of Illinois, first elected in 1974, hasn't—but most do...
...Let them start at zero, like newcomers, and stay a maximum of twelve more years...
...And I mean an issue that actually defeats some incumbents...
...They love to spend, not cut...
...I'm sure I'd have voted for Reagan if he'd run for a third term in 1988...
...They'd want no cuts...
...Nobody in his right mind, that's for sure...
...The public's thirst for fairness would force them to...
...Under this scheme, it would take ten to twenty years to get Congress completely on the 12-year track...
...The more they rely on PACs to finance their campaigns, the more Washingtonized they become...
...Not that the budget chairmen propose sweeping cuts...
...THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR SEPTEMBER 1989 15 SARKES TARZIAN INC WPCS: 3: CH,ATTN,JOOGA, rE...
...Giving $5,000 to Tom Foley every two years probably makes PAC managers feel more secure...
...The money goes for TV or radio ads, or for direct mail...
...Washington is a wonderful compromise between New York and the boondocks...
...Eliminating them is a step in the right direction, but no more than that...
...They get swallowed up by the political culture of the city...
...They should be required to spend the money in their next campaign, or lose it...
...If that's still off-putting to incumbents, they could be grandfathered in their jobs...
...Life is pretty luxurious...
...And they'd have to give free time to challengers, too...
...He would eliminate business, trade, and union PACs, and he'd restrict ideological PACs to donations of $1,000 per candidate per election, not $5,000...
...The candidates could divide the time as they wish, some for 30-second spots, some for five-minute speeches, some for 30-minute biographical sketches, and so on...
...Or Democrat Stephen Solarz of New York, who's saved up $1,158,484...
...So did every Pentagon weapons system, regardless of cost-effectiveness...
...There are precedents for both...
...In fact, I'd add to that by letting senators and House members serve as committee chairmen and in leadership posts such as Speaker and majority leader for only four years...
...The trick is deciding which ones and getting Congress to pass them...
...So did every Pentagon weapons system, regardless of cost-effectiveness...
...Don't penalize incumbents for their years in Congress...
...Michael Malbin, an aide to Defense Secretary Dick Cheney and co-author of Vital Statistics on Congress, 1989-1990, says it takes at least $200,000 for a challenger to run a credible campaign for the House...
...Does it make them more responsive to their constituents, less to organized interests in Washington...
...This isn't what members of Congress like to do...
...With the dough they get from PACs, they can buy all they want...
...This isn't what members of Congress like to do...
...The Tkventy-second Amendment saved us from ourselves...
...It ought to be raised to $5,000, or higher, or better yet, eliminated altogether...
...He says House or Senate members should be required to put their personal holdings in a blind trust that's truly blind...
...Inr...
...The answer is reform," he said...
...Many members of Congress cease representing their states or districts in Washington beyond the grubby pursuit of narrow special interests (retaining an Air Force base, getting a HUD grant, and so on...
...The liventy-second Amendment limits Presidents to two consecutive terms, andthat's worked fairly well...
...As for Congress, the chairmen of the intelligence and budget committees are switched every four years...
...The longer they stay, the worse it gets...
...I'm amazed the people who run PACs haven't caught on...
...16 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR SEPTEMBER 1989 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR VOL...
...I'd go with the House Republicans, and also give challengers in districts like Waxman's the franking privilege to match the mailings of the incumbent...
...If a few PACs did, then they all might feel that it's safe to stop, and PAC-banning legislation wouldn't be needed...
...Fred Barnes is a senior editor of the New Republic...
...BLOOM...
...And the problem isn't one-party rule in Congress either...
...The franking privilege lets a member of Congress send newsletters, announcements, and other thinly disguised propaganda to constituents with no postage...
...It would make incumbents all the more unbeatable, since their challengers couldn't outspend them or match their exploitation of incumbency...
...Virtually every social program, no matter how wasteful or redundant, survived...
...Republican incumbents spent $408,000, compared to $143,000 for Democratic challengers...
...Every night in Washington, members hold fundraising receptions to which PAC officials flock with their checks...
...He'd prohibit incumbents from 14 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR SEPTEMBER 1989 carrying over campaign funds from election to election, and he'd bar unsolicited mass mailings that members of Congress send out under the frank—at no expense to them, naturally...
...KTVN 2 r'L's.0 WTTS Q2 3 17 P,103rs,iir‘ WGCL,1370 AM...
...He'd prohibit incumbents from 14 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR SEPTEMBER 1989 carrying over campaign funds from election to election, and he'd bar unsolicited mass mailings that members of Congress send out under the frank—at no expense to them, naturally...
...Don't raise the objection that this won't work in House races, where TV and radio aren't cost-effective and thus aren't used...
...But had Republicans ruled the House, there'd still be lots to complain about...
...Republicans got 31 percent...
...they keep in touch at home...
...In fact, I'd add to that by letting senators and House members serve as committee chairmen and in leadership posts such as Speaker and majority leader for only four years...
...Bush would bar unsolicited mass mailings by members of Congress...
...Almost by definition, members of Congress who've been in office only a few years are not entrenched...
...As for Congress, the chairmen of the intelligence and budget committees are switched every four years...
...They love to spend, not cut...
...THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR SEPTEMBER 1989 15 SARKES TARZIAN INC WPCS: 3: CH,ATTN,JOOGA, rE...
...BLOOM...
...With a virtually unlimited supply of PAC contributions available in Washington, is it any wonder that 98 percent to 99 percent of House members are reelected time and again...
...They love the life-style in Washington...
...To remind senators and House members why they were sent to Washington, we should cut back on PACs, the frank, campaign stashes, and lifetime tenure...
...Not that the budget chairmen propose sweeping cuts...
...Challengers need not apply...
...By their fourth or fifth year, they've mingled enough with their colleagues so they've either emerged as leaders, capable of being Speaker or whip or caucus chairman, or been sidetracked as followers...
...In 1988, Democratic candidates for Congress got 47 percent of their campaign funds from PACs...
...We don't need a revolution, but we do need more turnover in Congress...
...Big deal...
...Steny Hoyer of Maryland, the new chairman of the House Democratic caucus, was elected in 1981, in leadership posts by 1985...
...Why else would they try so hard to maintain it...
...Does a reform create incentives for them to reflect the broad interests of their constituents (the parochial interests will take care of themselves...
...T n judging proposed reforms, the I standard should not be simply whether they curb PACs or reduce spending...
...It isn't PACs—they're only part of the problem...
...Republican incumbents spent $408,000, compared to $143,000 for Democratic challengers...
...They absorb Washington's ways by osmosis...
...They could stay as long as they get reelected, but newly elected members could stay twelve years and no more...
...Nearly every reform plan, including Boren's, would take away this privilege...
...President Bush's reform package is good, as far as it goes...
...I could go on...
...One of the biggest impediments to contested congressional elections is the money that incumbents collect and hold...
...It's almost like Invasion of the Body Snatchers come true, except there's no need to put big pods by their beds at night...
...That may occur in 1990, though I'm not getting my hopes up...
...He'd force the disclosure of "soft money," which supposedly goes for party-building, but in 1988 was devoted to bolstering the parties' presidential campaigns...
...The problem is Washington...
...GOP incumbents get a lot more money from business PACs than their challengers get from labor PACs...
...Incumbents don't need free television...
...But in hindsight, I think we're better off with Reagan, at 78, in Santa Barbara and Bush in the White House...
...But where...
...I think strong campaign reforms are needed...
...The result is that real change occurs only fleetingly—when the voters register their desire for it in seismic terms, as they did in 1980 with the Reagan landslide...
...The average spent by Republican challengers was $99,383, compared to an average of $358,212 for Democratic incumbents...
...It may take an election in which congressional ethics, perks, and money-grubbing—Washington ills—are a major issue...
...But there's a way...
...But there's a way...
...They'd find this out if they stopped paying...
...The trick is deciding which ones and getting Congress to pass them...
...The money goes for TV or radio ads, or for direct mail...
...The advantage for incumbents is potent, even for Republicans...
...Spending limits, Bush said, will only keep people from participating in campaigns...
...I could go on...
...There are precedents for both...
...it's an iron octagon...
...In all, 190 House members are hoarding leftover campaign funds...
...If that occurs, incumbents will be desperate to get on TV...
...Not all of them succumb—Republican Representative Henry Hyde of Illinois, first elected in 1974, hasn't—but most do...
...He says House or Senate members should be required to put their personal holdings in a blind trust that's truly blind...
...Don't penalize incumbents for their years in Congress...
...After a year or two on Capitol Hill, they become representatives of Washington to the folks back home...
...Since TV and radio stations are a public trust, they should be compelled to provide free airtime for congressional candidates, some of it in prime viewing hours...
...As chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, Rep...
...To remind senators and House members why they were sent to Washington, we should cut back on PACs, the frank, campaign stashes, and lifetime tenure...
...Now, Washington provides powerful disincentives...
...Bush is correct in rejecting public financing of congressional campaigns and spending limits...
...television market...
...Republicans got 31 percent...
...That may occur in 1990, though I'm not getting my hopes up...
...This means they become skillful Washington politicians...
...After mid-1981, things were back to normal...
...True, 34-plus years of Democratic control of the House haven't been good for America...
...Bush would bar unsolicited mass mailings by members of Congress...
...Of course that would create another problem: fat cats...
...The public's thirst for fairness would force them to...
...If a few PACs did, then they all might feel that it's safe to stop, and PAC-banning legislation wouldn't be needed...
...Liberal Democrats could take money from business PACs, vote as anti-business as they wished, and then go back in the next election cycle for more PAC money...
...This made races against Democratic incumbents more competitive, and it forced incumbents in Washington to tune the voters in...
...For obvious reasons, buying time on Los Angeles television doesn't make sense for Henry Waxman, the Democratic House member from west Los Angeles, a small sliver of the L.A...
...In Washington, senators and House members quickly fall in with the permanent establishment of bureaucrats,lobbyists, political consultants, journalists, lawyers, flacks, and representatives of businesses, unions, trade associations, and other special interests...
...He relies heavily on direct mail, paid and franked...
...One of the biggest impediments to contested congressional elections is the money that incumbents collect and hold...
...Business PACs give their money to incumbents, period...
...Now they've rigged elections so they can't lose unless they're caught in a scandal...
...Incumbents don't need free television...
...I agree, and I'll bet Coelho would too, now...
...They could stay as long as they get reelected, but newly elected members could stay twelve years and no more...
...In 1988, "PACs gave four times as much money to incumbent senators as they gave to challengers, and contributed more to sitting congressmen as against challengers by an 8 to 1 margin," said Democratic Senator David Boren of Oklahoma, who has proposed a modest package of campaign reforms...
...After a year or two on Capitol Hill, they become representatives of Washington to the folks back home...
...It's not an iron triangle they join...
...After four years, the budget chairmen grow weary of advocating spending cuts and tax hikes...
...T n judging proposed reforms, the I standard should not be simply whether they curb PACs or reduce spending...
...There are plays, art galleries, fancy foreign restaurants, pleasant suburbs, good schools for their kids (outside of Marion Barry's District of Columbia, that is...
...Now, Washington provides powerful disincentives...
...And I mean an issue that actually defeats some incumbents...
...Inr...
...Coelho resigned from the House in June after it was revealed he'd purchased a junk bond from Drexel Burnham under questionable circumstances...
...It ought to be raised to $5,000, or higher, or better yet, eliminated altogether...
...PACs pony up the money every time, thinking that at the very least they're purchasing access...
...Of course that would create another problem: fat cats...
...They reduce competition...
...Let them start at zero, like newcomers, and stay a maximum of twelve more years...
...I'd be willing to accept this as a last resort, especially if the alternative is Congress-as-usual...
...This is an easy way for incumbents to raise money, and spares them the agony of traveling to their state or district to drum up funds...
...This means they become skillful Washington politicians...
...Too wonderful, it turns out...
...We need reforms that curtail the role of special interests, enhance the role of the individual and strengthen the parties...
...He'd force the disclosure of "soft money," which supposedly goes for party-building, but in 1988 was devoted to bolstering the parties' presidential campaigns...
...Does a reform create incentives for them to reflect the broad interests of their constituents (the parochial interests will take care of themselves...
...Or Democrat Stephen Solarz of New York, who's saved up $1,158,484...
...And they'd have to give free time to challengers, too...
...Many members of Congress cease representing their states or districts in Washington beyond the grubby pursuit of narrow special interests (retaining an Air Force base, getting a HUD grant, and so on...
...What members of Congress do with their personal finances is also important...
...Another overdue reform is a hike in the $1,000 limit on individual contributions...
...The real problem isn't money, though there's too much of it floating around...
...That's the test...
...In 1988, "PACs gave four times as much money to incumbent senators as they gave to challengers, and contributed more to sitting congressmen as against challengers by an 8 to 1 margin," said Democratic Senator David Boren of Oklahoma, who has proposed a modest package of campaign reforms...
...The advantage for incumbents is potent, even for Republicans...
...I've saved the most radical proposal for last...
...They should be required to spend the money in their next campaign, or lose it...
...And why not...
...For obvious reasons, buying time on Los Angeles television doesn't make sense for Henry Waxman, the Democratic House member from west Los Angeles, a small sliver of the L.A...
...After mid-1981, things were back to normal...
...With the dough they get from PACs, they can buy all they want...
...Democratic challengers got campaign funds from labor PACs, which made contests with Republican incumbents more cornpetitive...
...I'm not holding my breath...
...Tony Coelho realized this in the early 1980s...
...Challengers need not apply...
...We don't need a revolution, but we do need more turnover in Congress...
...So it'll be awfully hard to get a 12-year limit through Congress...
...Even the duds figure out what it takes to get along in Washington—and stay, year after year...
...verybody's got it wrong about campaign spending in Senate and House races, incumbent power, and political action committees...
...It's not an iron triangle they join...
...Now they've rigged elections so they can't lose unless they're caught in a scandal...
...So they might compel TV and radio stations to provide free airtime...
...In most races, the bulk of campaign spending is for one thing: advertising...
...Bush is correct in rejecting public financing of congressional campaigns and spending limits...
...It's sad, but very, very correctible...
...It would make incumbents all the more unbeatable, since their challengers couldn't outspend them or match their exploitation of incumbency...
...There's a solution, one I first heard from Robert Novak, the columnist and conservative folk hero...
...He overstated it, but he was drifting in the right direction...
...It's sad, but very, very correctible...
...Or Republican Larry Hopkins of Kentucky, whose permanent campaign treasury has $608,792...
...Nobody in his right mind, that's for sure...
...In most races, the bulk of campaign spending is for one thing: advertising...
...Until the Coelho revolution, Republican challengers had agood shot at getting money from business PACs...
...That would enhance the two parties...
...The real problem isn't money, though there's too much of it floating around...
...verybody's got it wrong about campaign spending in Senate and House races, incumbent...
...I didn't pluck these reforms out of thin air...
...PACs pony up the money every time, thinking that at the very least they're purchasing access...
...I've accommodated for that...
...Bush would allow the parties to more than double the amount they contribute to congressional candidates in "coordinated expenses...
...If anything," Bush said in June, public financing "would strengthen the status quo...
...There's not much incentive now for Congress to act, since the current system serves incumbents so handsomely...
...Virtually every social program, no matter how wasteful or redundant, survived...
...The city isn't a backwater anymore...
...Nope...
...After twelve years (earlier for some), they're creatures of Washington, usually safe from defeat and skeptical of sentiment outside the Beltway...
...Business PACs give their money to incumbents, period...
...These bloated campaign funds are chiefly used by incumbents to scare off challengers...
...PACs, which are concentrated in Washington, pull members of Congress away from the folks at home...
...Coelho wasn't the only one...
...Bush would allow the parties to more than double the amount they contribute to congressional candidates in "coordinated expenses...
...The candidates could divide the time as they wish, some for 30-second spots, some for five-minute speeches, some for 30-minute biographical sketches, and so on...
...This is the first in a series of articles in TAS on the Great American Congress in Crisis...
...Jim Wright got favored treatment on loans and investments...
...There's not much incentive now for Congress to act, since the current system serves incumbents so handsomely...
...Thomas Jefferson said America needs a revolution every twenty years, or something like that...
...This, in turn, allows incumbents to ignore their constituents...
...I didn't pluck these reforms out of thin air...
...There's a solution, one I first heard from Robert Novak, the columnist and conservative folk hero...
...Eliminating them is a step in the right direction, but no more than that...
...Conflicts of interest abound...
...The average spent by Republican challengers was $99,383, compared to an average of $358,212 for Democratic incumbents...
...KTVN 2 r'L's.0 WTTS Q2 3 17 P,103rs,iir‘ WGCL,1370 AM...
...Does it make them more responsive to their constituents, less to organized interests in Washington...
...Fine...
...In all, 190 House members are hoarding leftover campaign funds...
...I'm not holding my breath...
...No one wants a member of Congress beholden to a fat cat who contributed $500,000...
...I agree, and I'll bet Coelho would too, now...
...I'm amazed the people who run PACs haven't caught on...
...Jim Wright got favored treatment on loans and investments...
...But in hindsight, I think we're better off with Reagan, at 78, in Santa Barbara and Bush in the White House...
...They're still worried about reelection...
...In both cases, the programs had permanent friends in Congress...
...But they're not buying anything...
...A few decades ago, they'd have been voted out of office if they put on Washington airs...
...O nce PACs, which handed out $156 million in 1988, are killed, money for campaigns will have to come from somewhere else...
...Until the Coelho revolution, Republican challengers had agood shot at getting money from business PACs...
...He relies heavily on direct mail, paid and franked...
...Almost by definition, members of Congress who've been in office only a few years are not entrenched...
...The standard should be whether they make elections for the Senate and House more competitive, and keep members from adhering to the inside-the-Beltway playbook...
...GOP incumbents get a lot more money from business PACs than their challengers get from labor PACs...
...Imagine how they'd act if they lingered past four years as chairmen...
...So they might compel TV and radio stations to provide free airtime...
...If that's still off-putting to incumbents, they could be grandfathered in their jobs...
...There'sa way around this—and around the entire issue of money in political campaigns...
...As the law now stands, House members in office in 1980 can convert that money to personal use when they retire...
...The longer they stay, the worse it gets...
...PACs of all ideological and partisan stripes must be happy with the status quo...
...Conflicts of interest abound...
...No one wants a member of Congress beholden to a fat cat who contributed $500,000...
...That's not attacking what's really wrong...
...He would eliminate business, trade, and union PACs, and he'd restrict ideological PACs to donations of $1,000 per candidate per election, not $5,000...
...Union PACs, however, still fund Democratic challengers...
...Something awful happens to our elected officials when they get to Washington...
...The momentum from that election soon dissipated...
...Fine...
...There are plays, art galleries, fancy foreign restaurants, pleasant suburbs, good schools for their kids (outside of Marion Barry's District of Columbia, that is...
...I'd go with the House Republicans, and also give challengers in districts like Waxman's the franking privilege to match the mailings of the incumbent...
...This is an easy way for incumbents to raise money, and spares them the agony of traveling to their state or district to drum up funds...
...PACs do not buy the votes of senators and House members by giving them campaign money...
...This made races against Democratic incumbents more competitive, and it forced incumbents in Washington to tune the voters in...
...it's an iron octagon...
...For the time being, Congress is unlikely in the extreme to legislate free TV In judging proposed reforms, the standard should be whether they make elections for the Senate and House more competitive, and keep members from adhering to the inside-the-Beltway playbook...
...But where...
...That's the test...
...They don't...
...Nope...
...The problem is Washington...
...they keep in touch at home...
...Liberal Democrats could take money from business PACs, vote as anti-business as they wished, and then go back in the next election cycle for more PAC money...
...This is the first in a series of articles in TAS on the Great American Congress in Crisis...
...It's one I've come to reluctantly: a limitation on congressional terms to twelve years...
...They get swallowed up by the political culture of the city...
...The city isn't a backwater anymore...
Vol. 22 • September 1989 • No. 9
