2000$ Hamburgers

[lukeiamyourdad]

Since the American Presidential Campaign is coming, I've figured starting something that has nothing to do with Liberals vs Conservatists and Democrats vs Republicans.

 

This "stupidity" involves all the political parties. They seem to all do that. I was watching a show on TV last night and they were talking about the 2000$ Hamburgers for the financing of the Bush presidential campaign. I'm sure the Democrats are doing something similar. Now, after talking about the 2000$ hamburgers, they switched to an Archibishop(or something like that I can't remember his rank in the Catholic clergy) who was talking about the people needing food in Haĩti.

 

Now, is it normal to give 2000$ to a political party when people around the world are starving(and for reasons outside their control)?

Is it normal to give 2000$ to an already rich politician so he can finance his campaign?

Wouldn't that 2000$ be better spent on something more important then financing a political party?

 

I understand the importance of the political system but seriously, you must already have a LOT of money if you want to go into politics and then you have all the members of your party already giving you money.

 

Is even requesting money from people for your political party justified? Should it be banned?

 

Go on.

[dark jedi 8]

yeah i remember this s**t. a while ago there was a dinner or something for bush's campaign or just to see bush and it cost $5000 a plate to get in the restaurant. what bulls**t! i mean that's just throwing useful money away. they could have spent the money on a plethora (sp) of better things but no they were dumb enough to spend it so they could see a bumbling idiot. now i know political parties need money to run a campaign but spending millions is crazy IMO.

[taoistimmortal]

The reason for the sum of 2000.00 is tied to campaign finance laws. It is the largest sum that a single person is allowed to give to a political campaign. I'm a bit fuzzy on the details. As for whether it should be illegal, well that's kind of like saying eating or breathing should be illegal. This method of funding a political campaign is the bread and butter of the whole operation, and although it is highly ridiculous it is the oil that lubricates the whole machine.

[wassup]

What I think would make the race more fair would be if all the campaigns were designated a certain equal amount of money. The success or failure of the campaign would be dependent upon how productively a party uses that money to advance their goals, not how much money they can bring in.

[lukeiamyourdad]

That would indeed give the small parties a chance to do something.

[toms]

limiting campaign funding would be a great idea. they have been talking about it for a while over here... but i don't kow if it will happen. You just know that they will be able to get around it with a bit of financial trickery.

 

Do the political parties get "designated" broadcast time that they don't pay for in the US? THey get something like that over here.

 

THere is of course also the problem that these people and companies don't donate money for no reason... they all expect to get something back. Heck, half the companies donate money to BOTH sides to make sure they get perks whoever wins.

 

This gives an argument for having government funded campaign... but of course people don't want to see their taxpayers cash spent on that sort of thing... although in the long run i think it might be the lesser of 2 evils.

 

in the meantime, one of them should propose a quick ammendment to mean that a party has to donate 25% of all money it raises to charity or something. It is indeed obscene that people are willing to donate $2000 to a politician and about $1 to charities that actially need the money.