43 Democrats in the Senate have signed onto a bill to effectively repeal the First Amendment. This month a cloture motion was introduced in order to stop debate and move the bill forward.
S.J.Res.19 would effectively give Congress the power to control any political speech in the United States.
Led by Harry Reid, the bill would eliminate the ability of campaigns, political parties and outside groups to spend money in elections. We would all like to see corruption via campaign spending to end, but to eliminate the 1st Amendment is not the way to do it.
Limiting or ending your rights is often initiated under the guise of addressing a problem ‘we all agree on’ and this is no different.
“What the amendment [to the Constitution] would do if adopted is give Congress plenary authority, absolute authority, to regulate all political speech,” stated Ted Cruz, who warned us last week this was coming.
Saying the foundations of democracy are threatened, Senate Democrats took the first step Tuesday to rewrite the First Amendment, holding a hearing to rally support for their proposed constitutional change that would give government the power to ban all spending on political campaigns.
The effort drew vows of resistance from Republicans, who harangued Democrats for abandoning free speech rights for political gain. Republican lawmakers said the solution was for Democrats to improve their arguments, not to silence their critics in an assault on fundamental freedoms.
“Where are the liberals today? Why is there not a liberal standing here defending the Bill of Rights and the First Amendment?” Sen. Ted Cruz, Texas Republican, demanded of his Democratic colleagues on the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Forty-three Democrats are sponsoring the amendment, which would give Congress and the states powers to set strict limits — or eliminate — the ability of campaigns, political parties and outside groups to spend money in elections.
Democrats said they were spurred by several recent Supreme Court rulings that have freed up outside groups to spend money advertising for their points of view in elections, leading to a flood of cash, much of it spent anonymously, in the 2012 election.
testify at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on “Examining a Constitutional Amendment to Restore Democracy to the American People” focusing on campaign finance on Capitol Hill, Washington, D.C., Tuesday, June 3, 2014. (Andrew Harnik/The Washington Times)Enlarge Photo
testify at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on “Examining a Constitutional Amendment … more >Signaling the stakes in the fight, the Senate’s top Democrat and Republican testified at the hearing, mounting feverish attacks on each other.
“We sit here today with a simple choice: We can keep the status quo and argue all day and all night, weekends, forever about whose billionaires are right, whose billionaires are wrong, or we can work together to change the system, to get this shady money out of our democracy and restore the basic principles of one American, one vote,” Mr. Reid said.
Mr. Reid acknowledged that he felt “so unclean” after his hard-fought 1998 Senate campaign, when one major donor contributed a quarter of a million dollars to the Nevada Democratic Party and let Mr. Reid know he had done so — apparently an effort to curry favor.
“I hope that didn’t corrupt me, but it was corrupting,” Mr. Reid said.
He continued his assault on the conservative Koch brothers, two billionaires who fund conservative causes and who have become special targets for Mr. Reid.
But Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, Kentucky Republican, said Mr. Reid was attacking the Koch brothers as a smoke screen for “how incredibly bad this proposed amendment is.”
He said even liberal lions such as the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy voted against this kind of effort. Indeed, a 2001 effort to amend the Constitution on campaign finance was defeated by a 56-40 vote, and a 1997 effort was defeated by an even wider 61-39 vote.
Mr. McConnell said Democrats’ push this year is an election strategy, not a serious effort to work through constitutional issues.
“This proposal is never going to pass Congress. This is a political exercise and that’s all it is. The goal here is to stir up one party’s political base so they’ll show up in November,” he said.
The amendment Democrats are pursuing is strikingly broad. If ratified, the amendment would let federal and state governments set limits on how much money could be contributed to campaigns, spent by candidates or raised and spent by outside interest groups such as the National Rifle Association or the Sierra Club.
No it doesn’t you stupid, gullible $#%&!@*s. It’s simply campaign financee reform that states 1) corporations are NOT people. 2) you can’t give billions to campaigns and remain anonymous. Of course, corrupt Republicans resent this. Without the dark money from the privledged few, they’d be screwed and out of office.
The more they try to destroy our rights via the Constitution, the more they are destroying themselves in the process.
‘Liars”, they swore an oath to uphold the Constitution, nazicrats are nothing but traitors,,,
This LIE simply will not die! Harry Reid and the Democrats do NOT want to end Free Speech…they do NOT want to end the First Amendment. What they want to do is end the stupid idea of a corpration as a person.
I do not believe Reid knows how to tell the truth…Talking about the how “dirty” he felt. Apparently, he did not feel too dirty when he went to the native Americans of Nevada and made special promises to get relected. That was the only reason he won that race…..This administration is the dirtiest of the dirty….
Money is not speech.
Everyone who complains about corrupt government should allow themselves to have just one more thought.
What is the cause of government corruption?
The passage of this legislation will trigger an immediate 2nd Civil War, as the Patriots of the Republic and Constitution have already determined that this is a trigger point! Folks, the ONLY way our Republic is going to be restored, is that EVERY federal, state, and local Communist, Communist, and Fascist must be exterminated! If they remain alive and in power, they will continually attempt to subvert our Constitutional Republican form of gov’t, because dedicated radicals like that will NEVER reform, and will NEVER quit!
Sic Semper Tyrannus!
Nobamano says:
“Dude, they took over 1/6th of the U.S. Economy with Obamacare. Obamacare was passed without a SINGLE Senate Republican vote. Keep saying they can’t do that. See where THAT gets you in the next few years! The only thing ALMOST as scary as Obama owning both the House AND the Senate is Obama as a lame duck! NOTHING is beyond this Constitution-hating Marxist. NOTHING!”
From: http://www.truthandaction.org/democrats-move-end-free-speech/comment-page-93/#comment-610485
Get evil harry out of the senate. It’s OUR WAY or the highway, harry.
AZRanger says:
“The passage of this legislation will trigger an immediate 2nd Civil War, as the Patriots of the Republic and Constitution have already determined that this is a trigger point! Folks, the ONLY way our Republic is going to be restored, is that EVERY federal, state, and local Communist, Communist, and Fascist must be exterminated! If they remain alive and in power, they will continually attempt to subvert our Constitutional Republican form of gov’t, because dedicated radicals like that will NEVER reform, and will NEVER quit!
Sic Semper Tyrannus!”
From: http://www.truthandaction.org/democrats-move-end-free-speech/comment-page-98/#comment-627657