The Millionaire's Amendment

By Libby

I didn't around to blogging much on the SCOTUS decisions, but this was the under-reported one on campaign contributions and I was trying to make sense of it before I posted. The court struck down a provision of campaign finance reform that allowed a candidate to accept larger contributions from individuals if they were up against an opponent rich enough to fund themselves.

I couldn't figure out how to sum up my reaction but luckily James Joyner did it for me.

Yesterday’s Court decision protects the interests of a relative handful of millionaire candidates for office. But it does not restore the rights of tens millions of Americans who have organized themselves politically to spend their money — which the Court acknowledges is speech — as they see fit in trying to defeat said millionaires. It’s a very strange paradox.

Indeed and strange timing. This was for House races only but considering it's an election year, it was a hell of a time to throw a new wrinkle into the rules and it certainly did nothing to even the playing field.

That's the real trouble with our government. It's run almost solely by rich people at every level and they will look out for each other. We don't even exist in their understanding of the world.