00:00The American political system is broken. It is corrupt. It is significantly owned by the billionaire class.
00:09Today, our government is well on its way to becoming a wholly owned subsidiary of the oligarchs.
00:17At a time when 60% of our people are living paycheck to paycheck, struggling to pay for housing,
00:24health care, groceries, and other basic necessities, it is why millions of Americans are giving up on democracy.
00:34They are struggling. They're trying to stay alive, and they see a government that works day and night,
00:41not for them, but for wealthy campaign contributors.
00:46Today, the average American gets one vote.
00:49Billionaires, however, through their super PACs can spend unlimited amounts of money to elect the candidates of their choice
01:00and to defeat candidates who stand up for working families or a just foreign policy.
01:08Does anyone in America really believe that our democracy is supposed to be about Elon Musk, the richest man in
01:18the world,
01:18spending $280 million to elect Donald Trump as president?
01:24Does anyone really believe that it is acceptable that in the 2024 presidential election, the 100 wealthiest people in the
01:35country could spend $2.6 billion to elect the candidates of their choice?
01:42Does anyone believe we are in anything resembling a true democracy, when in the 2026 cycle, right now,
01:53AI, crypto, and APAC-aligned super PACs will be spending many, many hundreds of millions of dollars to protect their
02:04interests?
02:04Here is the political reality of today, a reality that we just saw yesterday in the election in Kentucky,
02:14when Congressman Thomas Massey, somebody who I have very little in common with politically,
02:21was defeated by $9 million in contributions from APAC and $7 million from Trump megadonors.
02:30And what was the great crime that Massey committed that gendered so much super PAC money in opposition to him?
02:40Well, he opposed the war in Iran.
02:43And so do the vast majority of the American people.
02:47He demanded that the Epstein files be open, which is what the American people have wanted.
02:53And he refused, what a crime, what an outrage, to be a rubber stamp for Donald Trump.
03:01Let's be honest.
03:02The reality is that any candidate today who stands up to the AI industry, to crypto, to APAC and other
03:11special interests,
03:12will be hit with an onslaught of TV ads and social media attacks paid for by the richest people in
03:19this country.
03:21As all of us know, 16 years ago, by a 5 to 4 vote, the Supreme Court in the Citizens
03:29United case issued one of the most disastrous decisions in the history of our country.
03:35Since Citizens United, billionaires and large corporations have poured huge amounts of money into the political process
03:43and in return are getting policies that serve their interests at the expense of working families, the environment and a
03:52decent foreign policy.
03:54That is a major reason why the very, very rich in America are getting richer while working families are struggling.
04:02If we are going to create a government that works for all and not just the 1%, we have to
04:08end Citizens United,
04:09we have to get super PACs out of elections, and in my view, we have to move to public funding
04:15of elections.
04:16Today, the legislation that Representative Lee and I are introducing begins to do just that.
04:22Specifically, the Abolish Super PACs Act would limit individual super PAC contributions to $5,000.
04:31Billionaires would not be able to pour huge amounts of money into super PACs.
04:36And it would end the era of unlimited spending and putting power back into the hands of the people.
04:43Way back in 1933, Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis made a very profound statement.
04:50He said, quote, we can have democracy in this country or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands
04:57of a few,
04:59but we cannot have both, end quote.
05:01What Brandeis said back then was correct.
05:05It is even more accurate today.
05:07For the sake of our democracy, for the sake of an economy that works for working people and not just
05:13the very rich,
05:14we must ban super PACs and get big money out of politics.
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