the quarter-million people that have signed the get medicine out petition, that myself and we are all encouraged by the escalating nature of this debate. the fact that you exist, that this amendment exists, that these conversations are happening at all i think is remarkably encouraging, considering where we are. let me just continue with professor lessig, who indicts your amendment, he indicts my amendment and everybody else who says, you just have to stop this nonsense with his proposal. so here s the lessig solution. he says, we need to push, as a country, for small contributions in campaigns, specifically $50 vouchers, where, effectively, no one can give more than 50 bucks. doesn t matter who you are, what you are, whatever it is. voters get a $50, what he calls, democracy voucher. the voucher comes from the federal taxes, effectively. candidates can only accept the $50 citizens vouchers. and there s no other source of money. obviously, you and i are not
who has his version of an amendment, one of the constitutional scholars, and there s a lot of folks, as we know, in this conversation, but professor lessig, certainly one of the more respected. he said referring to your amendment, this proposal is just the latest verse in a very tired song. once again, the answer to the lim contributions, limit independent expenditures, limit soft money. no, no, no. before you feel victimized, this applies to the amendment we published under jimmy will wria and a lot of others. what do you say to lessig who says you need an actual plan to fix it? you can t just say this or no. it s a very hard problem to fix campaign finance as an across-the-board issue. but you can certainly go after the worst and most pernicious excesses in the campaign finance
republic. and if we have learned one thing in this process, it is that we are not alone in our desire to get money out. from the halls of congress to the streets of new york, out across this great land, russell simmons, just the other day, out with his amendment to get money out of politics. the sound grows louder each and every day. and democratic senator from rhode island, sheldon whitehouse, is a co-sponsor of legislation related to this issue, specifically focused on overturning the citizens united ruling. he joins now. senator whitehouse, one of the big distinctions in this conversation is the amendment you re involved with really says, doesn t set rules for money in politics, it says that congress should set those rules. is that correct? absolutely. it says that corporations should not be above the rules of the american people when it comes to spending their corporate treasuries to influence american elections. i want to read you a quote from lawrence lessig at harvard,