[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 37 (Thursday, March 20, 1997)]
[Senate]
[Page S2725]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          ``ANOTHER BAD ONE''

 Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that a copy 
of the attached editorial from the Vermont newspaper The Time Argus, 
titled ``Another Bad One,'' and dated March 19, 1997, be printed in the 
Record.
  The editorial follows:

                            Another Bad One

       The arguments against amending the U.S. Constitution over 
     campaign financing are the same as the arguments against a 
     balanced budget amendment or a prohibition amendment. It is a 
     waste of effort to target specific evils by way of the 
     Constitution.
       The U.S. Senate wisely rejected a campaign finance 
     amendment by a wide margin on Tuesday.
       States which have encumbered their constitutions with 
     numerous amendments have found their documents have become 
     just that: encumbrances.
       A constitutional amendment will not stop candidates from 
     getting money, and it will not stop people who want to 
     influence candidates from using their money to promote that 
     influence. You might as well have an amendment that said: 
     ``Candidates for public office shall not spend money in their 
     quest for the office.''
       Then there would be a court case to argue whether a 
     candidate who filled his automobile gas tank while on the way 
     to a campaign forum had ``spent money in his quest'' for the 
     office.
       A constitutional amendment against bank robbery would not 
     stop the number of bank robberies that occur. There is a law 
     against bank robbery, and in fact Congress finally got the 
     federal government into the investigations by making it 
     possible for the FBI to enter bank robbery cases immediately.
       And something similar relating to campaign financing would 
     be the proper course of action, instead of an amendment to 
     the Constitution. A congressional statute putting greater 
     controls over campaigns would have the same effect as an 
     amendment without the permanent encumbrance of the amendment 
     on matters unforeseen.
       In some cases the courts have ruled that specific laws 
     limiting contribution limits infringe on free speech. It 
     ought to be possible for a congressional statute to impose 
     some sort of constraint on money without interfering with 
     speech.
       The huge sums spent on campaigns may very well be 
     considered immoral, but history has given ample illustrations 
     of the futility of trying to legislate morality. Prohibition 
     is a relatively recent example. Did it stop people from 
     consuming alcohol? No. In fact, it helped increase the power 
     of law-breaking organizations geared to providing illicit 
     substances, a baneful influence that is still with us.
       The present spotlight in Washington on campaign 
     contributions and the methods of solicitation for such funds 
     makes it easy for people to think an amendment to the 
     Constitution would be an appropriate response. But however 
     tawdry such actions have been--and they certainly are 
     tawdry--there will be no change merely by passing an 
     amendment that says, in effect: ``Thou shalt not be tawdry. 
     Thou shalt not be greedy.''
       The existing amendments to the U.S. Constitution that come 
     closest to addressing a specific subject are the 13th and 
     14th, which after the Civil War abolished slavery and 
     codified equal protection under the law. But even they were 
     not so specific that they can't be applied to races other 
     than African-Americans, and questions of equal protection 
     arise even today.
       Efforts for a balanced budget amendment are an abdication 
     of congressional responsibility. Efforts for an amendment on 
     campaign financing constitute a similar abdication.

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