A Congress that raised $8 million from drug companies will never cap drug prices. That is not cynicism — it is the documented history of every reform that ever died. Private money doesn’t influence the government; it selects it. This statute cuts the cord: campaigns are publicly funded, dark money is exposed, and when Congress still refuses to act, the people can go around it by national referendum.
To win a seat you needed millions — so you went where the millions were: pharma, finance, platforms, fossil fuels. Then you legislated about them.Check it
The result wasn’t corruption in the cartoon sense. It was worse and quieter: the donors selected the candidates long before voters ever saw a ballot.Check it
Dark money flowed through 501(c)(4)s with no disclosure. "Independent" expenditures ran shadow campaigns that everybody understood were coordinated.Check it
And when huge majorities of Americans wanted something Congress refused to do, there was simply nothing they could do about it.Check it
Private political money is eliminated. Qualifying candidates get public campaign accounts set high enough to actually compete — not nominally available and practically useless.
Coordination is defined by a bright line with a specific prohibited-conduct list, so shadow campaigns stop working — while genuine independent advocacy stays free.
No exception for corporate, religious, or civic organizational treasuries. Dark money and foreign money face real disclosure.
And the escape hatch: a national referendum, from petition through certification, so when Congress won’t act on what the country plainly wants, the people can act themselves.
You raised private millions from the industries you would later regulate — and everyone involved understood the arrangement.Check it
Public campaign accounts, with qualifying thresholds that prove real support, and funding amounts scaled by race and state so a publicly financed candidate can genuinely win. Designed to be competitive — because a public system that loses every race is just a decoration.
"Independent" spending was coordinated in everything but name, and the rules were too vague to prove it.Check it
A specific, bilateral, bright-line coordination definition with a prohibited-conduct list and a safe-harbor list — clear enough to stop the shadow campaign without criminalizing authentic independent speech.
Ads attacking a candidate by name in the final weeks were laundered as "issue advocacy" and escaped every rule.Check it
A bright-line window test separating genuine issue advocacy from candidate advocacy. Timing and content decide it — not the label on the filing.
Corporate, religious, and civic organizations could route treasury money into elections, converting institutional wealth into political power.Check it
No exception for organizational treasuries — for corporations, religious organizations, or civic groups. Individuals have political rights; institutional treasuries do not get to buy elections.
501(c)(4)s moved unlimited untraceable money into campaigns, and voters never learned who was talking to them.Check it
Political disclosure requirements reaching dark money, 501(c)(4)s, and foreign money. You get to see who is trying to buy the outcome.
The enforcement body was structurally deadlocked by design, so violations went unpunished as a matter of routine.Check it
An Office of Public Campaign Finance built to be genuinely independent of both parties, with real enforcement authority — plus media rate equity and advertising caps so airtime can’t simply be bought in bulk.
Overwhelming public majorities wanted action; Congress declined; and that was the end of the matter.Check it
A national referendum with a real, accessible path: petition verification, ballot language, a campaign period, counting, certification, and legal effect. When the people’s representatives will not act, the people themselves can.
Ballot access rules were built by the two parties to keep everyone else out.Check it
Qualifying threshold standards with third-party access written in — the door is open to anyone who can demonstrate genuine support.
This is the plain-language version. The binding text is CS-5, which implements Article Eight of the Constitution.
This is your country’s law. Help shape the next draft of it.
