Ron Paul Liberty Report - Weekly Update --- Campaign Finance Reform Helps Special Interests
Aired: 2019-01-15
Duration: 04:44


=== Campaign Finance Reform Burdens Freedom (02:50) ===

[00:00:03]  Hello everybody and thank you for tuning in to the weekly report.
[00:00:07]  Campaign finance reform helps special interests.
[00:00:12]  One of the new Democratic House majority's top priorities is so-called campaign finance reform legislation.
[00:00:20]  Contrary to the claims of its supporters, campaign finance reform legislation does not limit the influence of powerful special interests.
[00:00:29]  Instead, it violates the First Amendment and burdens those seeking real change in government.
[00:00:35]  The First Amendment of the Constitution forbids Congress from interfering in any way with any citizen's ability to influence government policies.
[00:00:46]  Spending money to support candidates and causes is one way individuals influence government policies.
[00:00:52]  Therefore, laws limiting and regulating donations to campaigns and organizations that work to change government policies violate the First Amendment.
[00:01:02]  One very troubling aspect of campaign finance reform laws is forcing organizations involved in electioneering to hand over the names of their top donors to the federal government.
[00:01:15]  Electioneering is broadly defined to include informing the public of candidates' positions and records, even if the group in question focuses solely on advancing issues and ideas.
[00:01:30]  Burdening these types of organizations will make it harder for individuals to learn the truth about candidates' positions.
[00:01:38]  America has a long and distinguished tradition of anonymous political speech.
[00:01:44]  Both the federal and the anti-Federalist papers were published anonymously, as Justice John Marshall Harlan wrote in NACP versus Alabama, where the Supreme Court upheld the NAACP's right to keep its membership list confidential.
[00:02:03]  Inviolability of the privacy in group association may in many circumstances be indispensable to preservation of freedom of association, particularly where a group espouses dissident beliefs.
[00:02:18]  Supporters of groups with dissident beliefs have good reason to fear new disclosure laws.
[00:02:25]  In 2014, the IRS had to pay $50,000 to the National Organization for Marriage because an IRS employee leaked donors' names to the organization's opponents.
[00:02:38]  Fortunately, the Trump administration has repealed the regulation, forcing activist groups to disclose their donors to the IRS.
[00:02:48]  Unfortunately, Congress seems poised to reinstate that rule.

=== Supporters Fear Disclosure Laws (01:51) ===

[00:02:53]  In recent years, we have seen the rise of authoritarian political movements that think harassment and even violence against those with differing views are acceptable tactics.
[00:03:04]  Can anyone doubt that activists in these movements would do all they could to obtain the lists of donors to groups that oppose their agenda?
[00:03:13]  They may be able to obtain the list either by hacking government databases or by having a sympathetic federal employee accidentally leak the names.
[00:03:23]  As long as businesses can profit by currying favor with politicians and bureaucrats who have the power to punish them via subsidies and regulations, powerful interests will find a way to influence the political process.
[00:03:39]  These special interests seek out and reward politicians who support policies favoring their interests.
[00:03:46]  So foreign policy hawks can count on generous support from the military-industrial complex.
[00:03:52]  Supporters of corporatist health care systems like Obamacare can count on generous support from the health insurance pharma complex.
[00:04:01]  And apologists for the Federal Reserve can count on support from the big banks.
[00:04:07]  Special interests do not favor free market capitalism.
[00:04:10]  Instead, they favor a mixed economy where government protects the profits of large business interests.
[00:04:17]  That is why big business is more likely to support a progressive or a moderate than a libertarian.
[00:04:26]  Campaign finance and donor disclosure laws will make it harder for grassroots liberty activists to challenge the corporatist status quo.
[00:04:35]  Those wishing to get big money out of politics should work to get politics out of all aspects of the economy.