Campaign Financing in the United States: Issues and Laws

Critics often call campaign finance the rotten apple of America's version of democracy. Politicians retort that the system makes them do it. One can't get elected without massive spending on television and image consultants (image is after all what is being sold on television at the expense of substance) and this spending equals big money. The folks willing to part with said big money will only do so in exchange for something, i.e. specific campaign or industry tax breaks, effective control of foreign policy in certain parts of the world, future direct access to the candidate and multitudinous other forms of gift reciprocation. This book examines some of the laws which primarily serve as interesting but far from insurmountable hurdles for present and future lawmakers and some of the serious issues concerning a major problem whose solution is scheduled to arrive concurrently with the appearance of igloos at the equator.