WASHINGTON – With money pouring into American political campaigns at a torrential pace, President Barack Obama has begun promoting the idea of amending the U.S. Constitution to slow the flow.
The former constitutional-law-professor-turned-commander-in-chief has become an increasingly vocal advocate for a constitutionally mandated curb on campaign donations.
Its basic aim would be to scrap a landmark Supreme Court decision in the 2010 Citizens United case. The court triggered a gusher of spending by companies, unions and other organizations by declaring that organizations have free-speech rights.
The subsequent election saw US$6.3 billion spent on presidential and congressional races in 2012, according to the group the Center for Responsive Politics – more than double what was spent in the U.S. in 2000.
“I would love to see some constitutional process that would allow us to actually regulate campaign spending the way we used to, and maybe even improve it,” Obama said in an interview with the Vox site, released Monday.
