Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign released a new campaign finance plan Monday to “get corporate money out of politics.”
The proposal calls for amending the Constitution to declare that campaign contributions are not speech, calls for removing big-dollar fundraising for all federal elections, and specifically targets the practices of the Democratic National Convention.
The changes Sanders proposed would challenge the fundraising strategies of President Trump and Republicans but also those of almost all of his fellow Democratic rivals in the 2020 race.
The plan functions as yet another way for the Vermont senator to emphasize his opposition to corporate influence in politics and push for a grassroots, small donor system like the kind his own campaign has tried to champion.
Regarding the DNC, Sanders’ new plan would ban the convention from taking donations from lobbyists or corporations and would prevent national party heads from lobbying in the future.
The plan highlights that big corporations like Facebook, Bank of America, and Comcast each gave more than $1 million in donations to the 2016 Democratic convention.
“This type of corporate sponsorship is a corrupting influence and must end if politicians are going to represent the American people,” Sanders wrote. “Their lobbyists were everywhere and filled the VIP suites.”
Sanders has also promised to push for legislation that would create a compulsory public funding system for federal elections by creating “Universal Small Dollar Vouchers” that would allow all Americans above 18 the ability to donate to federal candidates. His plan does not include further details on how exactly these vouchers would be funded.
In the past, Sanders’ campaign has said it wants to accomplish some of the following campaign finance reforms: Overturning Citizens United, auto-registering all Americans older than 18 to vote, abolishing super PACs, and making Election Day a national holiday.
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