Gore Vidal has once said, "Our form of democracy is bribery on the highest scale.

"
While Mr. Vidal is right and business contributions are, in most cases, indeed bribes, limiting business
contributions will not only hurt the important link between the common interest and the congress, it
actually will bring about even more instability in this time of uneasiness in Washington. This, however,
is not the only reason for my negation of item number 12: “A Bill to Limit Business Contributions to
Political Campaigns.” Indeed, for
1. This bill is violating the corporations’ freedom of speech granted by the first amendment
2. This bill clearly violates the fourth amendment right against search and seizure, I urge all of
you, my fellow congressmen, to vote in firm negation to this piece of legislation.

This bill, my fellow congressmen, violates the corporations’ freedom of speech granted by the
first amendment of the constitution of United States of America. Furthermore, this bill is setting a
double standard on the American Public, as this bill clearly contradicts Citizens United v. the Federal
Election Commission, decided on January 21, 2010, which states that the so-called “protection is
inconsistent … [when it] is meant to prevent corporations from obtaining “‘an unfair advantage in the
political marketplace’ ” by using “‘resources amassed in the economic marketplace.’ ” It goes further
to state that “First Amendment protections do not depend on the speaker’s “financial ability to engage
in public discussion.” All speakers, including individuals and the media, use money amassed from the
economic marketplace to fund their speech, and the First Amendment protects the resulting speech.
So, by passing this bill, we are also setting a potentially costly double standard on the American
corporations.

Finally, the bill which is violating the Fourth Amendment right in its section 3, lines 17 – 18,
which states “The FEC will require corporations to do document all U.S.-based employee personal
information and reports.” The mandatory nature of the release of information as stated on the bill
contradicts our fourth amendment, which states “The right of the people to be secure in their persons,
houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and
no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation.”

So, because this bill is unnecessarily restrictive and violates not only the first amendment, but
also the fourth amendment, I urge all of you, my fellow congressmen, to vote in firm negation of this
resolution. After all, America has seen enough gory things already.