Why Congress doesn't work

I didn't realize that to be on a major committee in Congress, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee expects Congressional members to raise funds for the DCCC (or D-Trip to insiders). And not for just any Democratic candidates of their choice, bur for the Committee itself to dole out.  Enforced party support to buy your way onto a committee.  Democracy at its finest.  Of course, the same is true of the Republicans and the NRCC.

Freshman Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, recently named to the House Financial Services Committee, joined Ryan Grim and Briahna Joy Gray on a special podcast for The Intercept where she talks about that, among other things.  Interesting.  Enlightening.

And here's a story about it from last October in the Courier Press: Campaign cash trumps work in Congress, ex-members say | Secrets of the Hill

Excerpts:

[A] Florida Republican congressman from 2014 to 2017 [...] remembers seeing a “board of shame” outside grubby cubicles where colleagues made fundraising calls at the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC). Democrats make their calls from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC).

“They had a huge whiteboard with every (Republican House) member’s name and how much money you’ve raised, and it’s red, green or black, depending if you’re over your target or under your target.

[...]

“[There's] a hallway with 10 to 15 of these miserable cubicles. They have these little radiators, or wall air conditioners. [...] These things are probably three feet by three feet. You get a chair and a phone, and they are ratty."

[...]

Federal law forbids seeking or receiving campaign contributions from federal offices, so the NRCC and DCCC set up their call centers in their headquarters just a few blocks from the Capitol.

[...]

Many ambitious members also raise money to fund “leadership PACS,” which help members make friends – particularly if they aspire to rise within party or House committee ranks.

“If he wants to climb to the leadership of his committee, he’ll want to give out money to other members of the committee in his party,” Arkedis said. “The (congressional party) leadership might ask him to kick in money to candidates who aren’t incumbents. They’ll say, ‘We think candidate X in such-and-such district is within striking distance. We’d like you to give him 5,000 bucks.’”

[...]

“If you put yourself in the role of congressional leadership, policy, ideology — all of that is secondary to maintaining (party) control (of Congress) or to attaining control. And the only way to do that is with money. And so leadership wants their rank-and-file members out there raising money [at a torrid $18,000-a-day clip], not legislating.”

No wonder they don't have time to read the bills they vote on.  Few buck this system, because the DCCC and the RNCC hand out money to congressional members and candidates for their campaigns, and withhold seats on committees and support for agendas of those who don't play along.

Here's a Huffington Post article on the subject from 2013 when they got hold of a PowerPoint presentation to newly elected Democratic Congress critters: Call Time For Congress Shows How Fundraising Dominates Bleak Work Life

Two whole hours to do the actual work of an elected official to Congress, and one to two to meet with your constituents.  Now you know why you only get form letters when you write your Congressperson.

Rep. Alcee Hastings (D-Fla.) has largely managed to buck his fundraising obligations, he said, thanks to a safe district and, ironically, to the high name recognition he garnered from his judicial career and subsequent impeachment. But the congressman said the emphasis on fundraising makes more sense for freshmen members of Congress, who are contending with the era of Citizens United and unlimited independent political expenditures.

[...]

“Yours truly, in 20 years, I have combined — on behalf of DCCC, DNC and myself — been to DCCC for call time less than six hours in 20 years. I’m still standing.”

Hastings added that if he was forced to spend the majority of his time on fundraising, it would take a considerable toll on his ability to focus on his legislative responsibilities as an elected official. “It would cause me not to have the basic attitude that I have, and that is that I’m my own man,” Hastings said. “I would feel like I’m hooked, and that’s what happens here. That’s how this institution is run.”

[...]

Hastings noted the hypocrisy inherent in the system, which includes a law barring members from raising money while in their official office or the Capitol itself. “They don’t have to go to the DCCC to do it. They can get a cell phone on their campaign, and step outside of this place where you ain’t supposed to raise money  [...] and make calls,” he said. The incongruity is even starker outside the upper chamber, he said.

“I don’t know if you’ve been on the Senate side,” Hastings said. “But they go outside and sit in their cars and make calls.”

  Huffington Post January 2013

There's a bill languishing from the 115th Congress that tries to address a small portion of the issue by prohibiting congressional members and candidates from soliciting funds while Congress is in session:







Full text

It may never come to a vote.  Who's going to go on record voting for it when they're dependent upon the respective campaign committees for their own funding?  I'll try to keep tabs on it.


If you'd like further reading on this subject...


When Bill Clinton defeated George H.W. Bush in 1992, their campaigns spent a total of $192 million—combined! In 2012, Barack Obama and Mitt Romney spent over $7 billion, including outside funding from superPACs—nearly 37 times more than just 20 years earlier.
 [...] 
In Political Mercenaries, Lindsay Mark Lewis tells the outrageous tale of the fledgling days of fundraising and how he raised over $200 million for the Democratic Party, its candidates, and its causes over a fifteen-year career. Sure to raise the eyebrows of everyone from ordinary citizens to Citizens United, he pulls back the veil of secrecy that has shrouded the relationships between politicians and their financial backers in this thought-provoking and laugh-out-loud insider account.
 [...]  
Lewis' tactics aren't for the faint of heart. Along the way, he launders $40,000 from an (allegedly) murdered casino mogul, smuggles marijuana, and passes an Elvis impersonator off as Bill Clinton! But he becomes increasingly conflicted as he continues to sell access to politicians in exchange for ever-larger checks and a loss of control over the party's priorities. Lewis eventually rises to his party's top fundraising post at the Democratic National Committee, and attempts to redeem himself by waging an ultimately losing battle against the party's elite billionaire donors, who force him out.


...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.