We need to strengthen reporting requirements to produce timely and useful information. With modern computers and the Internet, there's no reason why campaign contributions and expenditures shouldn't be reported daily and posted on the Internet in a standard format that can be easily accessed and analyzed by the press and the public. It is not the job of the FEC to point out patterns of contributions that may suggest undue influence over a candidate. That is the job of a free press and anyone else who wants to take the trouble to access and analyze the information. That bill should be the top priority of the 105th Congress.
Government regulation is the main culprit distorting and corrupting our campaign finance system.
The last thing we need is more of it. It's time to apply the principles of freedom to the elections of a free people. About the Author Annelise Anderson is a senior research fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University. She was associate director of the Office of Management and Budget during the first Reagan administration, where she was responsible for the budgets of five cabinet departments and forty independent agencies. She has been active in five presidential campaigns.