Change Congress (through Congress’ pocketbook)

I wrote a few weeks ago about Lawrence Lessig’s almost-run for congress, as well as his plans for a Change Congress movement. Well, Change Congress is officially launched. Lessig was in D.C. this week to officially announce the movement’s plans.

Personally, I like the approach. Lessig is focusing on the real underlying issue for politics — the money. Change Congress is focusing on four goals (pledges in CC lingo) that they want to get politicians to agree to:

1. No money from lobbyists and PACs
2. An abolition on earmarks
3. Public financing of elections
4. Complete transparency in Congress

What do the first three issues have in common? Cold hard cash! And, when you get down to it, most transparency issues are just as focused on dollars as anything else.

There’s an ongoing recognition of the fact that politics runs on money… and not as much on taxes as we’d like. No matter which direction you want to change Congress in, it’s going to take cash. That’s the cold-hard truth that lobbyists have already grasped. Change Congress also recognizes that fact, and is offering a way to even the field. Simply making it hard for lobbyists to outspend taxpayers can make a significant change in the actual priorities of Congress.