This is that kind of story. For the first time a major business group is saying the way the U.S. pays for its elections is dangerously out of control.
Bad government is bad for business.
A milestone, according to one of the report's authors, Columbia University president George Rupp. It was the avalanche of unregulated money in the 1996 presidential campaign that convinced CED trustees something needed to be done. Another 24 percent from wealthy individuals, only four percent from labor unions. And much of the soft money has come from the CED's own supporters. And yet the CED blamed soft money in part for declining voter turnout and public distrust of government.