By Devan Hodges
A Bill for the Betterment of Campaign Finance
Today November 20, 2021 at the Youth and Government competition in Austin,TX, Senator Cooper Baldwin from Veterans Memorial High school in San Antonio Texas is proposing a very important bill. He is from the Austin Bexar County Delegation. Cooper Baldwin’s case is titled “A Bill for the Betterman of Campaign Finance.” It is about “initiating a small donor matching program in which individual contributions to federal campaigns can be matched” says Cooper. In other words he says, “The government will give a certain amount of money to a six to one ratio to that individual contribution, kicking it up to what could be a potential $1,400 dollar contribution from $200 dollars.” Cooper wants to pursue this bill because it allows for more average Americans to be able to be a part of the political process.
Cooper says “I have this legal standing because of the FEC (the Federal Election Commission). They are allowed to conduct an election”. When presenting this bill, Cooper Baldwin says his strategy is to “appeal to most of the Senators’ vision for Texas and for our country going forward.” His reasoning, he says, is because, “we know that we have huge influence, almost all of our influence (95% of it) is money in our political system from super PACS and corporations, and .9% of the money infused into federal politics is from individual contributions, which is a massive problem because it means massive corporations and super PACS are speaking for ordinary Americans.” Big money corporations have taken over the political influence which is an issue because politics are for the people, by the people. With big corporations, this is limiting the power of the people.
“This bill came up when New York City, New York came up with a system doing small donor matching programs for decades but on a federal and state basis, this is going to be a new program. It is borne out of the need to overcome the power of super PACS and big money interest in our politics” Cooper states. This is where he got the idea from. He is pushing for this but at a political and federal stance as his ending goal is to allow people to have more influence in politics. It is critical for this because political leaders are influencing the average American’s everyday life.
Cooper Baldwin’s bill is about changing the influence of big money in American politics. He wants to be able to have more Americans involved in politics because, as he states, 95% of all influence in politics comes from big money corporations. He is very passionate about this Bill because it allows for average Americans to regain their voice in today’s political climate. He got the idea from New York and Sacramento as they do small donor matching programs that donate a percentage of money from what a civilian donated. Presenting the bill today, Cooper has to appeal to the people he stands before and give reasoning behind his idea.