A giant step for Americans

Amidst little pomp and circumstance this weekend, President Bush promised to sign what is, in my view, the most important piece of legislation to come out of Congress in recent years. The legislation that Bush gave his endorsement to is the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002.\nCampaign finance reform has long been a hot topic of discussion in Washington, and Congress should continue to make our election system as fair and clean as possible, but at least for now, the American people can claim themselves as winners when reformers overcome the powerful special interests to pass the reform act. \nThe bill does not take all the money out of politics; rather, it intends to limit the previously unlimited contributions that national and state parties can receive from wealthy donors and organizations. Because this money is the life-blood of many prominent legislators (the two parties raised more than $160 million of it in 2001 according to a Common Cause analysis), the bill did not receive an easy passage. While similar versions of the bill were first introduce in 1995, it did not see a full and fair debate in the Senate until last year. Finally, with the highly publicized presidential candidacy of the bill's co-author in the Senate, Senator John McCain, the bill was able to receive a fair vote in the Senate last year. After much wrangling and political maneuvering over the last year (and an Enron scandal that showed just how corrupting money can be), campaign finance reform is where it deserves to be: The President's desk.\nThe affect that money has on politics is staggering. In the House, important committee posts are often rewarded on the basis of how much money a member has raised for the party. What's more, big donors have an unprecedented level of access with the power brokers in Washington (do you really think a legislator is going to listen to John Doe who can only donate $100 when a corporation or union has donated $100,000?). \nIn this chummy-chummy system that is our government, it is time for change. Campaign finance reform is that change. No longer will corporations and unions be able to give unlimited amounts of money to national parties. While this new system isn't perfect, it certainly is an improvement over the status quo. A system where the average American's voice is lost in a chorus of million-dollar donors is one thing: un-American. Anyone denying this is, naively, denying the pervasive effect that money has on politics.\nOpponents of the reform claim, among other things, that the bill doesn't completely solve the problem of money in politics; they are correct. Many democrats claim that Bush might have less than ideal (think political) reasons for signing the bill; they might be correct, as well. But government is not ideal; legislation never becomes law in its pure form. What these critics can not deny (as much as they may try to take the luster out of this reform) is that the American people scored a clear victory last week. Opponents clawed and scratched to stop this bill and they failed. In the end, they were unable to deny that it was time for reform. This is one case where Washington has made the right decision.\nSo, while many (myself included) are honing in on the sports page for a Final Four fix, campaign reform and this column have probably crossed your radar screens unnoticed. But on this day, that is not a problem. Today, we can focus on Atlanta and rest assured that our government made the right decision. It's about time.