OUR DEMOCRACY IS NOT FOR SALE
America is supposed to be a government of, by, and for the people.
But too often, the people with the biggest checkbooks have the loudest voices.
Billionaires can pour enormous sums into elections.
Corporations and special interests can spend through organizations that hide their donors.
Members of Congress can buy and sell stocks while voting on legislation that can move markets.
Government officials leave public service and cash in as lobbyists for the same industries they were supposed to regulate.
That is not democracy.
It is legalized influence-peddling, and we are going to end it.
Overturn Citizens United
Corporations are not people, and money is not speech.
The Supreme Court's Citizens United decision opened the door to an explosion of unlimited outside political spending and helped give billionaires and corporations even greater influence over our elections.
We support a constitutional amendment overturning Citizens United and related decisions and restoring the authority of Congress and the states to place meaningful limits on political spending.
The Constitution should protect the political voice of human beings.
It should not guarantee corporations the right to buy elections.
End Dark Money
If someone spends millions of dollars trying to influence your vote, you have a right to know who is paying for it.
Our plan will require organizations spending significant money to influence elections to disclose the people and corporations funding that political activity.
No more hiding billionaire donors behind innocent-sounding nonprofits.
No more shell organizations designed to conceal where political money originated.
No more political advertisements financed by interests voters cannot identify.
We will require clear, timely disclosure of major political donors and the true sources behind election spending.
If you are spending money to influence our democracy, you should have to put your name on it.
Ban Members of Congress From Trading Stocks
Members of Congress receive information, attend classified briefings, regulate industries, write tax laws, approve government contracts, and vote on legislation that can move billions of dollars through financial markets.
They should not be trading individual stocks while they do it.
Period.
Our plan will prohibit members of Congress from buying, selling, or actively trading individual stocks, corporate bonds, commodities, options, and similar financial assets while in office.
The prohibition will also apply to spouses and dependent children so politicians cannot simply move trades into a family member's name.
Elected officials will be permitted to hold diversified investments such as broad-based mutual funds, index funds, government securities, and other assets that do not create conflicts with individual companies.
Existing conflicting assets will have to be sold, moved into qualifying diversified funds, or placed into a genuinely independent blind trust.
No More Profiting From Information the Public Doesn't Have
Public service should not provide elected officials with an investment advantage.
We will strengthen financial disclosure requirements and impose serious penalties for violations.
No symbolic fines.
No slap on the wrist.
Politicians who deliberately violate the law should face penalties large enough to eliminate any financial benefit from the trade, along with additional civil or criminal consequences when appropriate.
If insider trading would send an ordinary American to court, holding public office should not provide a loophole.
Slam Shut the Revolving Door
Too many public officials regulate an industry on Friday and go to work for that industry on Monday.
Members of Congress become lobbyists.
Regulators become consultants for corporations they once oversaw.
Defense officials take jobs with military contractors.
Corporate lobbyists enter government, write rules affecting their former employers, and then return to the private sector.
The public has every reason to wonder who those officials were really working for.
We will impose strong cooling-off periods preventing senior elected officials, political appointees, congressional staff, and regulators from lobbying the institutions where they previously served.
For the highest-ranking federal officials, we support a lifetime ban on lobbying the office or agency they once led.
Stop Regulators From Cashing In
Government employees should not be able to use public service as an audition for a lucrative corporate job.
Senior regulators will face restrictions on accepting employment, consulting contracts, board positions, or compensation from companies they directly regulated or oversaw for a substantial period after leaving government.
Likewise, officials entering government from regulated industries will be required to recuse themselves from matters directly involving recent employers and major clients.
Serve the public or serve the corporation. You should not be able to do both at the same time.
Make Lobbyists Tell Us Who Is Paying Them
Lobbying should happen in daylight.
We will strengthen lobbying disclosure laws so the public can see:
Who hired the lobbyist
How much they are being paid
Which agencies and elected officials they are lobbying
What legislation or regulations they are trying to influence
Which corporate or financial interests ultimately benefit
Which former government officials are lobbying their former colleagues
We will also close loopholes that allow people who perform lobbying work to call themselves "strategic advisers" or "consultants" and escape registration.
If you're being paid to influence government, you're a lobbyist.
Ban Corporate PAC Money for Candidates Who Refuse It
Our democracy should be financed by voters, not corporate political-action committees.
We will strengthen public financing and small-donor matching programs so candidates can run competitive campaigns without spending their time begging wealthy donors and corporate PACs for money.
A $20 contribution from a teacher, nurse, mechanic, or waitress should matter more than it does today.
Political power should come from organizing people.
Not collecting billionaires.
Stop Super PACs From Becoming Shadow Campaigns
Super PACs are legally supposed to operate independently of candidates.
Too often, everyone knows that "independence" exists mostly on paper.
We will strengthen anti-coordination laws and close loopholes that allow candidates and supposedly independent organizations to effectively work from the same playbook.
If an organization is functioning as an arm of a campaign, it should be regulated like the campaign.
You should not be able to evade campaign contribution limits simply by creating another organization with a different name.
Make Government Contractors Choose
Companies receiving enormous federal contracts should not be able to use some of that money to buy political influence from the same government awarding the contracts.
We will impose strict restrictions on political contributions and election spending by major federal contractors and require full disclosure of political spending by companies seeking substantial government business.
Taxpayer dollars should purchase goods and services.
They should not finance political influence.
Give Ordinary People More Political Power
Getting big money out of politics is not only about limiting the power of billionaires.
It is about increasing the power of everybody else.
We will expand voluntary public financing and small-donor matching systems that multiply the value of modest contributions from ordinary voters.
That means candidates can spend more time talking to constituents and less time calling wealthy donors.
A democracy works best when politicians need more voters, not richer donors.
Public Office Is a Public Trust
Serving in government should be an honor.
It should not be an investment strategy.
It should not be a stepping stone to a multimillion-dollar lobbying contract.
And it should not give anyone the right to sell access to the highest bidder.
We can have a government that works for workers, families, small businesses, and communities.
But first, we have to break the grip of the money that controls it.
Overturn Citizens United.
End dark money.
Ban congressional stock trading.
Shut the revolving door.
And give our democracy back to the people.
