Stop Citizens United

Lindsey Olin Graham
U.S. Senator, South Carolina

"Well, Citizens United has gotta be fixed. Y'all agree with that? You're gonna need a constitutional amendment to fix this problem. I was for McCain-Feingold, the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that provisions in McCain-Feingold basically no longer apply. You're gonna get sick of watching TV in New Hampshire, so the next President of the United States needs to get a commission of really smart people and find a way to create a constitutional amendment to limit the role of SuperPACs because there's gonna be like $100M spent on races in New Hampshire, which'll be good for this TV station, ripping everybody apart, you don't even know who the people are supplying the money, you don't even know their agenda. Eventually we're gonna destroy American politics with so much money in the political process cause they're going to turn you off to wanting to vote."

Remarks at Turbocam, Barrington, NH 4/9/2015

Q: My question regards the recent Supreme Court decisions including Citizens United, that said that corporations have the same rights as people, and that money equals speech, and I’m wondering do you agree with those decisions, and if not, what would you do to overturn them?

A: OK, Citizens United basically struck down parts of McCain-Feingold, and now it’s the wild, wild west. How many of you guys have seen these? You’re going to be sick of political ads before this campaign is over. I can only tell you what happened in North Carolina, I’m from South Carolina. They spent $100 million dollars on the Senate races in North Carolina. I got so sick of seeing ads…half the people in South Carolina thought they were voting for the two candidates in North Carolina. The only way you can change this, I think, is through a constitutional amendment. I don’t know if we can get one passed, but here is what you’ve opened up to…right now, I need about 15 million dollars to be competitive on the campaign side. That is a lot of getting on the phone, and calling, and $2700 events, and a lot of just fundraising. But one person who doesn’t like me can write a check to wipe all that out. What I worry about is that we are turning campaigns over to about 100 people in this country, and they are going to be able to advocate their cause at the expense of your cause. If we don’t figure this out soon, we are going to lose what has been a pretty good system. Money in politics has to be regulated, because, if it’s not, you lose your influence. You lose your voice. Do you think unlimited giving by a handful of people doesn’t affect legislation? I’m in the place—I can tell you it would. So ma’am, I don’t know, but somebody needs to figure out a way to deal with Citizens United, or we will lose the democracy that a lot of people died for.

Q: What, Citizens United, you’re saying, a constitutional amendment…

A: I think that is probably the only way…can’t think of a better way…

Q: The Senate voted on a bill…

A: Yeah, the problem is that they had a loophole for unions you could drive a truck through. I am not going to unilaterally disarm as a Republican.

Q: What would you personally do? It is…it is just a tremendous threat to our democratic system.

A: I think…no, the next President of the United States ought to get some smart people in a room and say, all right, give us some views, some options here…how can we constitutionally move forward where no one party gets an advantage over the other.

Q: What would you do to the Supreme Court?

A: What would I do to the Supreme Court? Well, I would appoint vacancies. How many people believe that the biggest prize of 2016 is to maybe to appoint up to three judges, on the Supreme Court? How many people believe that we can get all of our judges and they never get any of theirs? OK, so, let’s say Hillary wins…

Q: <inaudible question “capitalism…money to lobbyists”>

A: Capitalism is a good thing, undue influence on legislative bodies is a bad thing. So here’s what I would suggest. The Supreme Court is the prize of the 2016 election. If you want a conservative judge you better elect a conservative president. Here’s what’s not going to happen…you know, have people told you we’re going to abolish the IRS, have you heard that from a Republican candidate? How many people believe we are actually going to abolish the IRS? We’re not! Now, we can have a flat tax, and we can have a smaller IRS, but somebody’s got to collect the taxes. If Hillary Clinton wins the White House, and you think we can stop her for four years from appointing anybody on the Supreme Court, that’s not going to happen. So here is what I’m here to tell you: elections matter. You know these Executive Orders of Barack Obama, I think they’re unconstitutional…they’re in court today. The way you fix that is to pick a president who won’t do those kinds of things. So I hope and pray that we will take this election seriously enough to realize the ramifications of losing. If we lose, then everything that is in place today stays in place. If we lose, there will be more liberal judges than there are today. So, please, understand, this is an election we can’t afford to lose.

Q: Question about money in politics…do you think the money is the bigger problem or the fact that there is something to buy with it? If we had less, uh, if there was less government involvement in so many areas, people wouldn’t be willing to throw all their money to try to influence it.

A: Well I think the size of government does attract money, I mean we’re spending about four trillion dollars a year—there’s a lot to lobby about. But let me tell you where money really matters. How many of you would like to see something like Simpson-Bowles done to save Medicare and Social Security? Somebody’s got to do it, right? When you reach across the aisle, you come back with a stump nowadays. There is a group for everything. If you can grow it, buy it, or eat it, there is an association for it. There is people on the left who are not going to allow you to change one word of Social Security or Medicare, thinking they’re helping. Well if you don’t do something Medicare and Social Security are going to get devastated.

 There are people on the right that are going to insist that if you eliminate a deduction in the tax code all of the money has to go to lower rates. We’re not going to get one Democrat to adjust entitlements. So the bottom line is, here’s where I think money really matters…primaries are getting harder and harder, gerrymandering districts that are heavily Republican and heavily Democrat. And the only thing people have to worry about is what?

 A primary. And I think that’s what’s happened in American politics—that politicians are job-scared. That if you try to do something with the other side there’s a group going to knock your head off. And this money that we are talking about comes from people you don’t even know who they are. They don’t have to tell you who they are. So I think the biggest impediment to a big agreement in Washington is special-interest spending, going after those who try to put the deal together.

 Do you know what the antidote is? Rewarding somebody who is trying to do something hard, standing up and saying, “No, I don’t want you to lose because you’re trying to fix immigration, I want you to win, even though I don’t agree with everything you tried to do.”