Pac Money in Politics
Floor Speech
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Mr. KHANNA. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to condemn the unholy alliance between soulless wealth and power that is stripping away Americans' freedom.
The reality is that, in 2024, 150 billionaires spent $1.9 billion on this election. Seventy-two percent of Americans--Republicans, Independents, and Democrats--are outraged with money in politics.
We did not fight the Revolution to be spectators in a game of billionaires putting ads on our television sets and mobile phones.
We have more dignity. We have more power as American citizens. Our Founders would be rolling over in their graves if they saw what has become of modern American democracy.
There was $2.7 billion of super-PAC spending--and let me tell you something, only 1 percent of Americans gave more than $200. Who has more than $200 to give to politicians? The money has become more important than votes.
Surely, we could agree in this body to ban super-PACs and overturn Citizens United. Short of that, surely we could agree with what Maine overwhelmingly did to restrict contributions to super-PACs. Why should it be that a politician can receive a contribution of only up to $3,300, but somehow super-PACs should be allowed to get millions of dollars?
We need to make sure, like in Maine, in every State that, at the very least, super-PACs are restricted so billionaires aren't buying our elections. I founded the No PAC Caucus in the United States Congress. We need to end PAC money, the lobbyist money that is corrupting the soul of our democracy.
We may not agree on every issue, but when you look at why politicians sold our jobs overseas, why Wall Street raided our manufacturers and hollowed out industry after industry to worship shareholder profits, then you have to look at the influence billionaires have had on our democracy.
Let's return power to our citizens. Let's ban super-PACs. Let's at least regulate billionaires from contributing to super-PACs. Let's ban Members from accepting PAC and lobbyist money. That will be worthy of our time in Congress.
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