If 97% Percent of Americans Sold Everything & Spent It on Congressional Elections, TheyCouldn't Max

http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/only-3-percent-america-has-enough-total-assets-reach-max-contribution-limit-13

If 97% Percent of Americans Sold Everything They Owned and Spent It on Congressional Elections, They Still Couldn't Max Out


The Supreme Court’s ruling in FEC vs. McCutcheon eliminated one of the few remaining limits on campaign donations, granting frightening new powers to the richest Americans, while providing no clear benefit to the rest of the population. McCutcheon eliminated the overall limit that individuals can give to candidates and parties in an election cycle. While the Court justified its ruling on the grounds of free speech, a pillar of democracy, a quick examination of the practical effects of McCutcheon shows that the ruling is anything but democratic.

Campaign donors can give up to $2,600 per election cycle to a given candidate. Before McCutcheon, there was an overall cap of $48,600 for donations to candidates. Combine that with a $74,600 limit on contributions to PACs and political parties, and individuals had a total legal maximum of $123,200 per two-year election cycle for federal races.

Given that this is about 20 percent more than the total two-year income of the median American household, it’s clear that U.S. campaign finance laws granted outsized political power to the rich before McCutcheon. In a post-McCutcheon world, $123,200 looks like the crumbs that fell off the table.

In 2014, as with every election cycle, all 435 seats in the House of Representatives will be up for election, as will a third of the 100 Senate seats. If an individual donor wanted to give the maximum to one candidate in each of the 468 races, the only limit to doing so is his or her bank account.