Congressional term limits mean, on a practical level, that senators are directly concerned with re-election for approximately half their tenure in office, and members of the House of Representatives are basically in a continual state of campaigning to keep their seats. And those seats are astronomically expensive.
Data from the Federal Election Commission shows that, as of 2012, the average cost of a successful senate campaign (whether for obtaining a seat in the senate or for being re-elected) was approximately $10.5 million. To become or to remain a member of the House of Representatives costs about $1.6 million. The salary for congressmen and senators is about $175,000 per year, so clearly, they are not self-funding their election campaigns; they are financed by Political Action Committees, by wealthy individuals, and by companies, with a small percentage of their funding coming from average citizens.
President Daniel Newman of MapLight, an organization that monitors campaign financing, says, “Most industries give money to members of Congress because it buys them access and influence….corporations can spend unlimited amounts of money on these races. The result is that members of Congress are fearful about voting against corporate interests because there’s so much money at stake.” In other words, the politician uses the money to buy the seat, and the donors use the money to buy the politician. Wealthy individuals and companies make political donations essentially as investments.
Campaign funding by PACs and corporations is supplemented throughout a politician’s term in office by money spent in political lobbying in favor of, or in opposition to, particular legislative proposals that may have a direct or indirect impact on a company’s business plans.
The near perpetual campaigning of members of Congress not only determines the way those politicians will vote so that they can ingratiate themselves to their financial sponsors; it also largely determines what issues will even be discussed in an election and during a politicians’ tenure. This skews the entire political discourse in the country; it creates false issues and overlooks real issues, and the result is an even greater degree of marginalization of the common people and their interests and concerns.
Insofar as American power, therefore, is under the command of the government, and the most important branch of the government is engaged in a continuous pursuit of sponsorship from corporations and the wealthy; that power is largely under the management of the private sector.
(Excerpted from the upcoming book “1,200 Crescent Moons”)
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