When candidates cannot raise or spend the money needed to speak directly to the voters, political discourse will move away from a direct conversation between candidate and voter, and we will surrender to the institutional media's power to mediate political debate. Katharine Graham of the Washington Post can editorialize in favor of certain candidates, or shape news coverage to reflect her philosophical perspective. Garry Trudeau can promote Bill Clinton by devoting his comic strip to bashing George Bush and Dan Quayle. Talk show host Rush Limbaugh can do the same in favor of his candidates. I also caution all members, especially the freshmen, against passing reforms that further entrench the power of incumbents.
Term limits are the best campaign finance reform of all.
In closing, I encourage the members of this committee to examine the evidence. The fervor to ban or limit PACs is based on impressions created by those who have the most to gain from their demise. Further restrictions on PACs will only increase the power of incumbents, millionaires, and the media, distort political debate and infringe on First Amendment rights. Millions of Americans will have their right of free association trampled and see valuable and irreplaceable sources of information evaporate. Historically, the most controversial First Amendment issues have centered on whether certain types of speech, such as commercial speech, licentious speech, and symbolic speech are protected by the amendment.