Donors should be allowed to give unlimited amounts of money to political campaigns, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush said in a 2012 congressional hearing. Bush also said campaigns should be required to fully disclose their donors.
“I love the idea of having campaigns be funded directly rather than indirectly and have no limits and total transparency,” Bush said. “If people were offended by a large donor, the candidate … would have to accept responsibility for the message and for the amount of money and for who gave it. That would be, for me, talking about markets rather than a government-controlled kind of response. That would be a better approach.”
The concept of no limits, total transparency might sound radical. David Keating, the President of the Center for Competitive Politics says otherwise. Twelve states already have no limits on campaign contributions, and half the states have no limits on contributions to political parties.
“We had no campaign finance limits at the federal level until the mid 1970s, and our country did great for about 200 years with no campaign finance contribution laws at all,” Keating told the Washington Examiner.
Federal law currently limits individuals to donating $5,200 per federal candidate per election cycle.
Besides alleviating concerns over freedom of speech, the elimination of contribution limits would also greatly simplify the campaign finance system. Keating told the Washington Examiner that campaign finance laws “are so complicated they make the tax code look like a model of simplicity and clarity.” Limits lead to complex laws that are supposed to ensure limits cannot be evaded.
Bush’s call for total transparency also is not radical. Keating explained that campaigns must disclose all donors who give more than $200. “It’s pretty close to total transparency already,” Keating said. Requiring disclosure of donors under $200 would excessively burden campaigns. Small donors below that level have little individual influence on candidates, and disclosure of small donors would have little benefit to the public.
“As it relates to money in politics, we basically have parity,” Bush also commented. “Both sides effectively spend about the same amount of money if you total it all up.”
Data collected by the Center for Responsive Politics show President Obama’s campaign spent $250 million more than Mitt Romney’s campaign in 2012. However, adding outside spending and national party spending shows Republicans overall spent $1.2 billion to Democrats’ $1.1 billion on the presidential election in 2012.
Even though Bush suggested that campaign donations should not be limited, he added that Congress should not let donations affect their decisions. “I would suggest to you that Congress ought to show more self-restraint about allowing that influence to change policy,” Bush added.
Bush formally announced on Tuesday that he is considering a presidential run in 2016.
