❝❝My idea for campaign finance reform.

You can't contribute to a campaign unless you reside in the area affected by the campaign. No one from Phoenix could contribute to a city council election in Tucson, no one from California could contribute to a proposition in Nevada, and so on.

No anonymous contributions. A current public list of all contributions must be maintained.

Any unused funds must be returned proportionally to all contributors or to a specified charity. If someone contributed .01% of the campaign's funding, then they would receive .01% of any monies left over.

Violating any of these rules would render a candidate legally unable to serve in any public office until the end of term for the office they ran for. If they ran for Senate, violation would make them ineligible for six years. In the case of a ballot proposition, the election would be voided and must be held again.

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Money is not speech. No matter what the USSC says.

If they want to spend money, they can do so in their own home. If they want to speak against someone, they can do that where ever and when ever. But someone in Idaho doesn't have to live with the aftermath of an election in Illinois.

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It's part of my SUPER SECRET PLAN TO DESTROY THE POLITICAL PARTIES.

Don't tell anyone.

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People forget that the party system wasn't created by the Constitution. Yet they essentially control the nomination process. Take the cash flow and war chests and political action groups away and the parties collapse.

All without arguing over if cash is free speech.

Oh, and banning corporate campaign contributions. And union contributions. And political "matching funds."

*grins*

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Money isn't speech any more than money is press. Money is a tool, a way of keeping score, and power, but it is not speech.

If money was really speech, there would be no legal limit to campaign donations.

If someone has more money, does that mean they have a bigger right of free speech or a bigger right of the press? If that is the case, we might as well do away with elections and just hold auctions.

It's telling that prior to campaign finance "reform," no one thought otherwise. It's also telling that the CFR was used to restrict speech.

Just because the law says something doesn't mean it's so. I'm still convinced that anyone born with a penis is a male.

Under my proposal, there are two restrictions on donating money. You have to be a voter and you have to reside in the area affected by the election. These are the two restrictions that every other proposed form of campaign finance reform tries to do away with.❞❞

Tags: campaign finance reform ∙ contributions ∙ Phoenix ∙ Tucson ∙ California ∙ Nevada ∙ charity

Headlines that don't merit their own entry

Tags: Twitter ∙ shadow banning ∙ red light cameras ∙ Miami ∙ trucking ∙ surveillance ∙ assasination ∙ Donald Trump ∙ dating ∙ charity ∙ eminent domain ∙ New York ∙ punishment ∙ deregulate ∙ sanctuary church ∙ Barack Obama ∙ Facebook

“Instead of Trashing Groceries During Cooler Malfunction, Store Donates 35,000 Pounds of Food”

Tags: Trader Joe’s ∙ Kalamazoo ∙ Michigan ∙ charity

Headlines that don't merit their own entry

Tags: ICE ∙ sanctuary cities ∙ women's march ∙ marijuana ∙ Delaware ∙ proactive policing ∙ Paul Manafort ∙ Robert Mueller ∙ charity ∙ cold ∙ homeless ∙ evidence ∙ hate speech ∙ healthcare ∙ measured ∙ education ∙ Donald Trump ∙ auto industry ∙ car sales

Tags: israel ∙ UNESCO ∙ Christmas card ∙ bitcoin ∙ regulation ∙ charity ∙ volunteers ∙ healthcare ∙ University of Minnesota ∙ Christmas ∙ humor ∙ Santa Claus

Tags: net neutrality ∙ Hezbollah ∙ Millennials ∙ Karl Marx ∙ laundering money ∙ used cars ∙ CDC ∙ Uruguay ∙ drug lords ∙ USAPATRIOT ∙ banned ∙ homeless ∙ charity ∙ starup culture ∙ marijuana ∙ Barack Obama ∙ cocaine ∙ government ∙ perverse ∙ sexualization of children

“LDS Church unveils charity vending machines on Temple Square”

Tags: Trent Toone ∙ LDS Church ∙ charity ∙ vending machines ∙ clipping

❝❝If I choose to give, that is charity and can be celebrated. If I am manipulated or threatened into giving, that is extortion. I don't care how good the cause is, if I am required to give without my consent, that threatens my freedom. I shouldn't be tricked into it “for my own good” or “for the greater good.” I want to know WHY, and I want an honest answer. I demand the choice to walk away.❞❞
     — NeoWayland

Tags: charity ∙ manipulated ∙ threatened ∙ extortion ∙ for your own good ∙ for the greater good ∙ choice ∙ walk away ∙ maxims

““Unity in things Necessary, Liberty in things Unnecessary, and Charity in all.””
     — Richard Baxter

Tags: Richard Baxter ∙ unity ∙ necessary ∙ liberty ∙ unnecessary ∙ charity

Taxing Hospitals Is a Lousy Way to Fix Health Care

❝❝But if that’s the case, then the best solution is probably to stop subsidizing it, not to make the subsidy more complex. A lot of the current mess in the American health-care system can be traced back to the thicket of hidden subsidies and fiddling regulations we’ve enacted over the years, trying to fine-tune the system into some platonic ideal where nothing ever goes wrong and no one ever makes an unseemly amount of money. But fine tuning has not delivered us the platonic ideal of anything, except perhaps the word “dysfunction.” It might be time to step back and rethink our approach.

We might start by asking ourselves, “Why are hospitals tax exempt in the first place?” When the income tax was first levied, giving hospitals nonprofit status made sense, because these organizations did largely act as charities. Over the succeeding decades, however, the government decided that it didn’t want to rely on charities for charity care, and enacted a series of programs that financed such care with government dollars.

In an ideal world, perhaps hospitals would have gratefully accepted those dollars, and redirected the money they’d been spending on treating patients to cover gaps in the system, like dental care (woefully underprovided either by charity or government fiat). But we do not live in the ideal world. The difference between a charity hospital and its for-profit brethren has shrunk smaller and smaller, and by now, seems too small to justify treating them as charities.❞❞
     — Megan McArdle

Tags: clipping ∙ Megan McArdle ∙ subsidy ∙ healthcare ∙ hospital ∙ tax exempt ∙ charity

Almost nobody bothers to ask if the screws should exist in the first place.

Tags: Constitution ∙ right vs. left ∙ Donald Trump ∙ Hillary Clinton ∙ Bill Clinton ∙ Robert A. Heinlein ∙ attacks ∙ government ∙ none of the above ∙ IRS ∙ DOJ ∙ Clinton Foundation ∙ charity ∙ parity test ∙ companion

If it’s true, it could destroy the government.

Tags: Harper's Magazine ∙ 1867 ∙ Davy Crockett ∙ Edward S. Ellis ∙ charity ∙ guest content ∙ James J. Bethune

Keep law simple and absolute.

Tags: Official Authorities® ∙ for your own good ∙ uniform rule of law ∙ deductions ∙ waivers ∙ progressive rates ∙ abatements ∙ incentives ∙ special recognition ∙ government grants ∙ government funding ∙ private enterprise ∙ special rights ∙ bad law ∙ progressive ∙ income tax ∙ exceptions ∙ legislators ∙ campaign contributions ∙ non-profit foundations ∙ charity ∙ ☆

"Lessons" I don't agree with from a progressive list

Tags: Original Vigil ∙ charity ∙ extortion ∙ classic ∙ favorites

Guess which word the popular version uses. It is not Freakin'

A work in progress. Comments and suggestions are welcome.

Tags: Original Vigil ∙ KYFHO ∙ F. Paul Wilson ∙ The Equalizer ∙ An Enemy Of The State ∙ Jack Williamson ∙ consent ∙ Jeffersonian ∙ Great Depression ∙ gold ∙ bad choices ∙ consequences ∙ charity ∙ extortion