On Saturday, Hillary Clinton announced she would call for a constitutional amendment to overturn the Citizens United‘s ruling if she gets elected as President of the United States. As she declared, the current campaign financing system is bad for America.
On Saturday, former Secretary of State and current Presidential Candidate, Hillary Clinton stressed that she would introduce an amendment to get rid of “Citizens United” system within the 30 first days of her mandate. The decision would be effective if she gets elected, of course. She made the announcement to the progressive activist group “Netroots Nation” during its annual conference in St. Louis.
She did it in 2015 while she was campaigning in Iowa as a way to control unaccounted money and reduce inequalities. Nonetheless, Clinton is not the only one to pledge for this, current President Barack Obama criticized financial campaign ruling since it gives to the wealthiest even more power in Washington in detriment of the influence of average people, who can only make small contributions to the candidate of their preference.
Clinton: Citizens United is bad for Americans
The Citizens United is a conservative non-profit organization founded in 1988. Its missions are to reiterate the traditional American values. Citizens United is also known for its investment in the conservative party’s political campaigns. In 2010, The Citizens United system became a constitutional law which regulated the campaign financing system and the spending of an organization in political campaigns. According to the Supreme Court, the government – due to the Freedom of speech constitutional right- couldn’t restrict free donations and financing for political campaigns to organizations, corporation, and other associations.
The amendment proposed by Clinton will attempt to challenge the interests of the wealthiest, reducing their influence on the American political system. If she becomes the U.S. President, Clinton said she would appoint a Supreme Court Judge that understands that Citizens United is a bad thing for America. She will try first to overturn the Supreme Court’s 2010 decision in the high court, and if it doesn’t act, she will turn to the Constitution, in the first 30 days of her administration.
She said that the reform attempts to establish “common sense rules to protect against the undue influence of billionaires and special interests and to restore the role of average voters in elections.” She affirmed that there must be an executive order to require the disclosure of all spending.
Stronger together
Moreover, as she was recently endorsed by Vermont Senator and retired presidential candidate, Bernie Sanders, Clinton said she looked forward to hearing, learn and work with the Americans who were loyal to Sanders during his campaign. Sanders also pledged to change the funding system for political campaigns, saying that there was an excessive amount of money being spent on political campaigns. Furthermore, she is planning to add some changes for her administration in the college affordability and health care plans to coordinate them with Sanders’ proposals.
Source: The Washington Post