spending on the super pacs dark muddy rivers flowing in for a 501 c 46 organizations because it the citizens united opinion which was again 5-4, deeply divided and continuing huge majorities of the american people reject this proposition that corporations should be treated like citizens, like people. there continues to be majority support for constitutional amendment, democrats brought it up on a party-line vote. citizens united, the governing dogmas of the time which are money is speech and corporations are people and now we are trying to work out other statutory ways to fight that. but this is the big question of our time. are we going to be able to find a way to reclaim democratic momentum, all the momentum we had from the civilizing movement of the last century, the civil rights movement, labor movement the -- of we going to allow corporations to govern? i am speaking as someone who wants corporations to profit, prosper, thrive but not govern. that belongs to the people under our constitution. [applause] >> was there anything you would like to respond to? >> i concur in part and dissenting in p

>> when we begin the constitutional limit campaign, the day of the citizens united decision, and a lotf people thought they would never go anywhere. in fact, we got 16 states and over 630 cities and towns across 38 states that passed resolutions either by ballot initiative or by votes of legislature endorsing the constitutional amendment movement, and with the senate vote on the floor of the senate this past fall, which got a majority of senate votes -- although, did not reach the necessary 2/3 threshold. constitutional amendments take a long time. it doesn't happen quickly because the constitution itself provides for a process to make sure constitutional amendments are deliberate. where in the phase of eldon grassroots support in educating people about the need to restore and repair our constitutional vision our predecessors had. amy: had to corporate rights compare or corporate personhood, how does it relate to human rights? >> what you see ironically is most often, an assertion of corporate rights, part of this new corporate civil rights movement, asked directly against human rights

we'd like to thank citizens united for partnering with us and giving out this award. thank you very much. [applause] >> well, thank you all. first i want to thank matt and the a.c.u. for making the andrew breitbart award part of the cpac official schedule. this is a big honor for us and a big step for the andrew breitbart award my name is david bosse, president of citizens united and we are proud of sponsoring the citizens united theater here at cpac for the seventh year in a row to show some of our terrific documentaries. i know a lot of you have been in there over the last few days. i'm really just tickled, i needed to get a little bit pinched this morning because i knew that folks we see on television, the robertson clan was coming to town. getting a chance to visit with them today has been truly an honor. first, before i get to the award presentation, i want to take a few minutes and talk about our conservative values and our principles and what they mean for the 21st century and how we need to rededicate ourselves to educating younger generations about our belief

administration ryan heart from open government i'd like to read this quote from kennedy in the citizens unit case the government may comment a constitutional wrong that identities preferred speakers by taking the right to speak if some and give it to others the government denies the person the right to establish work and respect for the speakers voice the government may not deparagraph the public to determine for itself what speech and speakers are worthy ever consideration the first amendment protects speaker and speech and the jed idea from each i'd like to agree with our timeliness and here's why i agree i have 19 orders of determination every one has failed to be enforced by you the last one was the city larger than and held a hearing to announce it the day i left the city to go out of the state i was not given notice by e-mail or postal mail a hearing was held when it gets to point you can't dismiss them like in the past are go do an enron i think that some real questions need to be answered when you look at 19 times are you going to say their all faulty this is a pattern of behavior of

buckley is fine compared to what we have got with citizens united. as you know there are 15 holdings but i basically agree with the decision and there's a lot going on in that opinion but compared to what we have seen in citizens united. >> it was not the first case to hold corporations have first amendment rights. >> i will cut the conversation short. >> i apologize if we were not able to get as many questions from the audience but i think you will agree it was worth it. [applause] [applause] >> one thing i think is true is this is a very difficult issue and there are good arguments on both sides and i strongly urge you if you are interested in learning more to buy ron's book which i do think offers a balanced perspective. i also encourage you to buy ginnie's books which i think do a great job of putting our way of government under the microscope and asking ourselves can we do better. they both have agreed and are willing to sign the books if you wish to purchase one which we can do right after this. thank you for coming. you are a great audience, t

this is the democratic obsession citizens united.that allowed the republicans to compete on the basis of money with the democrats. the democrats are going to take the republicans down because of citizens united. this is the method they'll use. >> this could pop up at any time during the election campaign. >> just intimidate them. >> all right. when we come back, "hits & misses" of the week. (woman) the constipation and belly pain feel like a knot. how can i ease this pain? (man) when i can't go, it's like bricks piling up. i wish i could find some relief. (announcer) ask your doctor about linzess-- a once-daily capsule for adults with ibs with constipation or chronic idiopathic constipation. linzess is thought to help calm pain-sensing nerves and accelerate bowel movements. it helps you proactively manage your symptoms. do not give linzess to children under 6, and it should not be given to children 6 to 17. it may harm them. don't take linzess if you have a bowel blockage. get immediate help if you develop unusual or severe stomach p

>> citizens united was big many changing things. there's also changes in our culture. you know in our universities -- i know i'm sitting in a great university -- our universities have become all vo-tech schools. they teach you how to earn a living, but they don't teach not my and art and literature and how to be a citizen instead of just a cog in the economic machine, you know? we have more and more people because of the cable shows who hate the other side. they don't just disagree, they hate. so, i mean there's a lot of things that are to blame here. >> john? >> i'm a quaker. [laughter] >> wow. that was a short one. thank you. >> and -- >> oh. there's more? >> if you were born an abolitionist quaker at the founding of the american experiment, you probably lived your entire life and died without seeing meaningful progress to end slavery. and yet the quakers from 1787 on kept banging away on issue. and they helped to form abolitionist newspapers and to form political parties that got 1% of the vote and then 2% of the vote. and then they started to do more. it wasn't the

recently and this message, you can take it as you will the supreme court justices who voted for citizens uniteid. pope francis commenting on money in elections. perhaps public financing would allow for me, the citizen, to know i'm financing with a given amount of money. everything needs to be transparent and clean. >> absolutely. the campaign activists in the united states who have taken such a drumming were like we have a champion again. it's the pope. this comes afterthe five catholics on the court were the ones who created the majority opinion in citizen united that opened the flood gates here. maybe a new chapter in the debate over whether big money hurts or helps politics. >> table authority, no less. thank you so much. >> thank you. one more note from president obama's appearance on jimmy kimmel. the commander in chief read some of the mean tweets. part of jimmy kimmel's act. he played along. >> a 30 rack of coors light is $23 now at sun stop. thanks obama. how do you make obama's eyes light up? shine a flashlight in his years. that's pretty good. i have to say those weren't that mean. i

fear that is going to deform american elections as much or more than your equally misguided citizen's united decision did sir >> i would say given what my friend said to you, why didn't you look at the cartridges or the rounds that are chambered in the shotgun and rifle from the second you overturned this law. >> i would say something different. i don't think i would engage in talking to him. i would say you are contributing to destroying the democracy and using the power of the supreme court to overturn decisions the rest of us are passing to try to protect ourselves from the rich and powerful. decisions we enacted to move toward a racially equal society. you are a danger to our democracy and it is incumbent on people like we as a constitutional law scholar and on informed citizens like you all to strip chief justice john robert and the supreme court of the legitmacy it squandered with these decisions. >> yeah unfortunately, i think we are out of time here. and i wish this could go on for another hour because there is no much to say. >> booktv on facebook. like us to get schedule updates, b

partly as a result of citizen united the staggers sums that you alluded to.verage it looks like lesser and lesser political coverage as you've got, i think, a in species of lohse believes that politics is boring, and you know it well of crash and murders and sports and weather with smiling bob and sally, and there you go the sumpses is folks aren't interested in it but that's the marketplace reality. >> jonathan isn't there a real potential problem here that all of the sudden the sales department starts running the local news department that maybe we don't want to run this stories. because this cant might be spenting a lot of money? what about that? >> well that can happen but if they're not run dern and they don't like negative stories anyway, i don't the younger generation srcht watching local news. the future is internet ads, the way they do it in israel, interesting. if your add isn't clever enough it doesn't cut through. it depends on how clever the ads are. that's at least a marginal unit -- that doesn't mean we don't have terrible trouble with big mone

>> i think, chris, that the dynamic of politics now in washington especially since citizens united is the incredible power of big money. i think to be very honest with you, if we do not overturn citizen's united and move to public funding of elections, you will have a congress heavily indebted to the wealthiest in the country. that is a huge issue. and the only antedote that i know of is for the development of a very strong grass roots movement around the aggressive agenda to start representing working people and not just billionaires. not an easy thing to do but it is imperative that happens. >> is there that pressure right now? we're going through a big budget fight. it could be the first post austerity budget fight. the president has presented his budget, we might have something that looks like a normal budget process for the first time in awhile. is there that flsh toere to deliver? do you feel that on capitol hill? >> it depends on who you talk to. if you talk to me yeah. i feel that. if you talk to mitch mcconnell no. one thing that bothers me is the failure of the main stream m

and him to senator menendez re-election efforts through political action committees and the pro-citizens unitedorld. hundreds of thousands of dollars all told then you can leave it to yourself what does he get in return? this is a man who has had private meetings with senator reid and apparently had him on his jet in boston. this is a man who paid $30,000 to meet with president obama and complained that he was not treated the way he thought he should be treated. yesterday there was an article that talked about a meeting that senator reid and senator menendez had with then hhs secretary kathleen sibelius. what was the meaning about? do you think it was ensuring millions of americans under obama helping new jerseyans understand their medicaid? no, it was senator menendez complaining his friend had been treated unfairly in billing practices under medicare and medicaid and kathleen sibelius called then to have this meeting. people should worry about things like that. >> to me i was somewhat shocked that a man who has spent more than 40 years in public service starting at the school board and hudson

, the native men's who were certainly subject to the jurisdiction of the united states, but were not intended to be made citizens they were subject to a foreign sovereignty. >> has that been a good thing for the united states after the late part of the 19th century when the supreme court affirmed birth ride citizenship. it's basically been the rule that a baby can give you a food hold. has that been a good thing for the united states? >> i think the 14th amendment has been a good thing for the united states, for the six reason that it's a defining thing about us in the community of nations. we make it clear the moment you are born we don't give you a disadvantage. there are other dilenties, but at birth we don't gi you that. that is important in the interrogation in immigrants in the united states. >> and one that we day with at our peril. >> i think it's the thing that makes us distinct among other community of nations, if you look at countries in europe. you see people joined to a generation of people in those countries, and that creates a sense of alienation and discrimination proving to be close to members o

contribution that's the one thing that remains left after the mc congressional and the hunching even and citizens united that whole idea that contributions can be closely regulated and illegal attractions can be prohibited and punished as they are under the section that's the only thing that remains to the people in the electrical process if becoming corrupt that's policing campaign attractions if we go ahead and just wave this away we're essentially saying san francisco is saying well, it doesn't matter we have a committee that is channeling this illegal campaign money to supervisor farrell well, we may have not known even though he didn't he is still responsible under the law if we don't have that we'll have this evil man washington his hands in order for this section to have validity. >> any other questions for mr. sutton. >> thank you, mr. chair do you happen to know how much was spent overhead on the campaign the mark farrell campaign. >> i apologize. i don't it might be 2, 3, 4 some of the documents i don't know if you know. >> and i ask because to me. >> several hundred thousands of dollars. >> i

now, here's the problem: citizens united was a supreme court ruling based on the first amendment. so it can't be overturned by statute. it could be overturned by a new court or it could be overturned by a constitutional amendment. and those are extraordinarily challenging processes. so i think we have to think of other creative ways to reduce the influence of money given that in the short term, we're not going be able to overturn citizens united. and i think the other way is for us to think creatively. we have to have a better debate about how we make this democracy and encourage participation. the process of political gerrymandering is dangerous to congress. i don't think people should draw the line and decide who their voters are. democrats and republicans do this. and it's great for incumbents. but it means over time that people aren't competing for the center because they know if they win a democratic republican primary, they're won. so it pushes parties away from compromise in the senate. i think that -- now, i don't think i've ever said this publicly but i'm going to go ahea

deal with income and wealth inequality deal with climate change how we deal with the disastrous citizens unitedcourt decision i think hillary's e-mail issue is not a major issue. >> il think that bernie sanders as a champion of openness would be bothered by the lack of transparency that seems apparent with . >> i can tell you in the last week we've gotten maybe five, seven calls to my vermont offices. look hillary has her problems i have my problems jeb bush has his, everyone has their problems but i think it's imperative that we focus on why the middle class in this country for 40 years is disappearing the top one tenth of 1% owns more wealth almost as much wealth as the bottom 90%. those are the issues that concern the american people. how do you make college affordable? how do we transform our energy system to reverse climate change? so yeah hillary's e-mails to my mind not much of an issue. >> senator, maybe your time has come with regard to the issues you champion you know, the issue of mim mum wage seems right, the issue of problems for the middle class seems right, the problems of health

and as a result of citizens united, it is a profound political issue.this is the issue that impacts all other issues. job creation and income from infrastructure, tax refund, health care, climate change, the bible, education, you name it. are all fundamentally impact, impacted at income and wealth inequality. and let me be very honest with you and tell you what very few elected officials will tell you your and that is that given the incredible power of the billionaire class over the economic life of this country over politics, over media, i am absolutely convinced that the struggle for economic and social justice, the struggle for strong middle class, the struggle for a vibrant democracy in which the elections are not bought by the wealthy, will not be one in our lifetime unless an unprecedented grassroots movement is developed which is prepared to take on and defeat the power of the 1%. [applause] over this last weekend my wife and i had the opportunity to visit selma alabama and montgomery, alabama, along with many other members of congress and tens o

this decision is known as citizens united.'t so interested in campaign financing until citizens united. ray: yeah, the corporations now can contribute unlimited amounts, and they were very successful, by the way, in contributing before this. can you imagine how successful they're going to be to contribute unlimited amounts? lillian: corporations all of a sudden are human beings, individuals, and can spend without limitation to support their candidates and their programs. this is very scary. narrator: since the privatizing of prisons began in 1980, prison population has increased more than 500%. and incarcerated drug offenders have increased more than 1,200%. russell: most of my friends, uh, went to jail at some point, over drugs. just as these people who are locked up, the prison- industrial complex pays the bills of the politicians, so much so that they either turn their head or they frame it that we're soft on crime if we don't lock these people up. we got to get the money out of politics. the prison-industrial complex, the

and as a result of citizens united, it is a profound political issue.this is the issue that impacts all other issues. job creation, health care, tax reform, climate change, the environment, education, you name it. they are all fundamentally impacted by income and wealth inequality. let me be very honest with you and tell you what very few elected officials will tell you. and that is that given the incredible power of the billionaire class over the economic life of this country, over politics, over media, i am absolutely convinced that the struggle for economic and social justice, the struggle for a strong middle class, the struggle for a vibrant democracy in which elections are not bought by the wealthy will not be won in our lifetime and less an unprecedented grassroots movement is developed which is prepared to take on and defeat the power of the 1%. [applause] ? over this last weekend, my wife and i had the opportunity to visit selma, alabama and montgomery, alabama, along with many other members of congress and tens of thousands of citizens to honor

citizens united was a supreme court ruling based on the first amendment.can't be overturned by statute. it could be overturned by a new court or by constitutional amendment. those are extraordinarily challenging processes. so i think we have to think about other creative ways to reduce the influence of money given that in the short term we're not going to be able to overturn citizens united. and i think the other ways for us to think creatively and we have to have a better debate about how we encourage participation. for example the process is damaging to congress. i don't think the insiders should draw the line to decide who the voters are. [applause] democrats and republicans do this. it is great for incumbents. it means overtime that people are not competing because they know if they when went and democratic primary or republican primary they have one. it pushes parties away from compromise in the center. i think that -- i don't think i have ever said this publicly, but i we will now. we should not be making it harder. we should be making it easier to v

down on early voting days but then that was facilitated by the worst decision even worse than citizens united the was a last dash for conservatives that they don't like activism. because they thought congress did not make the right judgment and it was terrible enable things to be done better but we have to make it clear to the environmentalist in those defending medicare that if they succeed that means the legislature who will be for protecting medicare for the cuts to support the rights. but i have another problem with voter suppression as vicious in the of the of better order but to stop saying to people there all bombs there all corrupt they never listen. [applause] but i have to say once a while a politician did something good because to say you cannot count some people contribute to voter turnout. the worst you think it is the more you have to vote. [applause] >> dan that calls to remind what you say about the hearings and also the murder of emmett till inspired you to want to become public service. day think the name of eric garner or matthew shepard will bring for people? >> i think th

we've got to overturn citizens united output >> mr. senator to me. or is are very credit to vote. if members of congress i rather think that would be noticeable and they would be quite free to exercise their discretion that not electing someone who was an employee of the universe. i don't know why we have so little dance in the electorate. >> so-called click please call the roll. [roll call] [roll call] [roll call] [roll call] [roll call] >> mr. chairman, the yeas are: 10, the nays are: 12. >> the amendment fails. senator crapo's amendment. >> i will yield to my cosponsor on this. [inaudible] >> we should not be using the gc going to support our industry as a piggy bank for other programs. it is rare to see where you've got bankers come a civil rights groups come naacp followed mine on the fiscally responsible amendment. >> all those in favor say aye. opposed? cary. next is the murray amendment. >> thank you, mr. chairman. this is the amendment that takes a deficit neutral reserve fund and section 307 and expanded to allow us to use drastically needed issues for our veterans and s

supreme court, the most business-oriented supreme court in our history, threw it out with the citizens united case. so that really has unleashed the tsunami of money from big oil and from, you know, big carbon and the financial industry and the pharmaceutical industry back into our political process so it's hard to even claim that we have a democracy any more in our country. it's really, you know, it's a corporate cleptocracy. a plutocracy, governed by the wealthy aristocracy that our european ancestors fled europe to come to america to escape. >> robert kennedy, thank you so much for being on "talk to "al jazeera america." ays" we appreciate it. >> thank you for having me? >> it was terrific. thank you. >> weeknights on al jazeera america. >> join me as we bring you an in-depth look at the most important issues of the day. breaking it down. getting you the facts. it's the only place you'll find... the inside story. >> ray suarez hosts "inside story". weeknights, 11:30 eastern. on al jazeera america.

citizens united versus the federal election commission which i believe is a terrible mistake by the supreme court but i think i can make a strong case against the supreme court just focusing on cases where liberals and conservatives agree. >> you say a number of times in the book that you think on balance in the supreme court has made things worse rather than better. would we be better off without supreme court? >> no, though i have to tell you i spent a lot of time pondering that as i was writing this book. there are constitutional scholars who believe we would be better off without supreme court with the power to strike down federal state and local actions. a very perceived as professor at harvard law school wrote a book called taking the constitution away from the court saying we should no longer have judicial review. larry cramer wrote a book called for popular constitutionalism. he is the dean of stanford law school in which he says we should and judicial supremacy and yet as i reflect on it i believe that the supreme court got it right in marbury versus madison in 1803. they are the s

supreme court, the most business-oriented supreme court in our history, threw it out with the citizens unitedase. so that really has unleashed thetoonthe tsunami of money from big oil and from, you know, big carbon and the financial industry and the pharmaceutical industry back into our political process so it's hard to even claim that we have a democracy any more in our country. it's really, you know, it's a corporate cleptocracy. a plutocracy, governed by the wealthy aristocracy that our european ancestors fled europe to come to america to escape. >> robert kennedy, thank you so much for being on "talk to "al jazeera america." ays" we appreciate it. >> thank you for having me? >> it was terrific. thank you. >> sunday. you know his music but what about the man? >> i was given a gift. >> up close and personal. behind the scenes of the biggest hits... >> she was a troubled girl. >> brightest stars... >> kids don't want to "own", they just want to "play". >> and the future of music. >> the record business is in trouble. >> every sunday night, >> i lived that character. >> go one on one with ame

here is the question -- is we have a system in which according to citizens united and unlimited funds committee provided to some of these campaigns, at what point because campaigns are so constant, do we find a hole in that in order to fix the problem? host: money and politics, james? caller: i don't know where it is going, but this is where we are at. you have a few candidates who would have these super pac's, right? you would have the campaign apparatus which does have limits on how much you can raise. i do not know how much you can spend, but how much you can raise. and then you have the super pac. an outside organization and technically these organizations cannot talk. right now, candidates have super pacs and they do not have campaigns. potential candidates anyway of jeb bush, rand paul, chris christie started one. eight candidates i believe have a super pac up and running. they are no longer this novelty or how is this going to work. it is a must have if you are running for president. the super pacs can raise and spend unlimited amounts of money and that will be one of the key f

. >> what about citizens united and overturning that and getting some limits on campaign spending so that we bring some reality back to this situation? >> there's no doubt that among advanced democracies we are unique in the length of our campaigns, the almost unlimited amounts of money that are now spent and i think it's bad for our democracy and i speak as somebody -- i speak as somebody who has raised a lot of money. >> i'm very good at it. i'm proud of the fact and part of the reason that i was really good at it is because we were the first sort of out of the gate to -- not the first, but we really refined using the internet for small donations and to be able to pool a lot of ordinary folks resources to amplify our message, but i also got checks from wealthy people, too so it's not that i'm not good at it. i just don't think it's a good way for our democracy to work. first of all it makes life miserable on members of congress particularly those in competitive districts. there is no doubt that it has an impact on how legislation moves forward or doesn't move forward in congress. i

but you're right negligence the short term things like citizens united is entirely disruptive but a justified 5-4 decision. some of the conservatives are going retire. if we have liberals in the white house, and they make the right sort of appointments that decision can be overturned. >> i got a quick one on that one. >> absolutely true. >> and also that -- this is kind of like the winston churchill thing, americans make the right decision when they exhausted all the other alternatives. my friend talks about how when america democracy -- the democratic structures themselves are at a crisis point somehow we manage to pull out of the nosedive. 1916 we passledded -- earlier -- the 16th amendment, the income tax, which got rid of the plutocracy of the era. the 30s we had the new deal in the 60s when young people were sent off to war cannon fodder we got the 21-year-old vote in 1972. so it doesn't happen magically and not going to happen by just kind of, things are bad so they're going to get good, but structural reforms have in do and can happen. >> question over here. >> related. if you could ta

note citizens united as a case. is the politics driving it? >> there is a sense that people are looking for things to you jump on and tense has admitted he did not handle it well. which he has conceded. so if he wants to make it a significant maybe just to stop the bleeding. lou: turn to your jeb bush running like a scalded cat. but to see him step up and fold? >> jeff bush made that calculated decision he will run the general election and campaign spending that is a reasonable. >> what is not reasonable is jeb bush share in the breeze gutierrez that leading activist for illegal immigrants and amnesty in the open borders will headline a convention in houston together. >> but to run a general election campaign now but that is like us stick in the eyes of conservative voters who don't like the immigration and push it seems if you want to make a case to republican voters he should not be any doubt with gutierrez to a so far extreme he gives up though low-key as a moderate. >>, a trouble is hillary now she is melting in the polls. >> data now it i

. >> lanny, do you think that campaign finance reform or dealing with citizens united, are good for hillary and what you know about her? >> i know what the facts are and the answer is yes. with all due respect to we share most of our issues in common. hillary clinton swept every single industrial major state in the united states, carried working family votes by enormous margins. she and barack obama agreed on raising the minimum wage. she agreed on tax and carried interest, of great concern to wall street investment bankers. ordinary rates, not capital gains rates. she has taken on the values of our party and has been a example of of human rights and women's rights. so we need a debate. i completely agree, and i hope that we have a vigorous debate, hillary clinton will be a greater and better candidate. she stayed to the very end in 2008 and i think made barack obama a better candidate. i can't say i don't think it won't happen this time. >> final question to lawrence on this effort. elizabeth warren said repeatedly she is not running. >> i think if she sees the importance of engaging this

that we allow for this reserve fund to move us toward a constitutional amendment to overturn citizens united and bring transparency. if some billionaire wants to run an ad attacking senator sessions or senator mary, that billionaire should put his face on the tv screen and identify himself. and not be able to hide. i understand that this is a highly sensitive issue. but i would hope that all of us can say that the current system, which is increasingly dominated by billionaires, is not what the american people deserve. i would ask for support for this amendment. chairman enzi: i haven't concentrated on that particular issue, but i've always been in favor of people having to identify if they were part of an ad. i don't think that takes a constitutional amendment. i hadn't envisioned the budget process setting of constitutional amendments. you have a right to set up one of those anyway without a deficit neutral reserve fund. there's no cost to that other than time sen. sanders: we have a lot of time. chairman enzi: any other opposition? senator to me? sen. toomey: our founding fathers would be

facilitated by i think the worst decisions the simple court and supreme court is made, even worse than citizen united. the last gasp of concerts think we don't like judicial activism. it was passed by congress. not only unconstitutional but they thought congress did maket t the right judgment. it was a terrible thing at it. enabled things to be done badly. what we have to do is to make it clear to other people,mak environmental us, people defending medicare that if they succeed and diminishing black votes that means feweregisla legislators will be for fighting- climate and who were fbefore. protecting medicare from the cuts to it who will be for supporting the rights of labor unions. another problem. voter suppression. as vicious but but i do wish some of our friends on the left the start saying to people there is no.in voting. i have to say john stuart is very funny but i wish once in a while on that shows someone did something good. you can't count. some people they contribute to the lower turnout especially with younger people. the worse you think it is the more incentive you want to have to try a

establishes a deficit-neutral reserve fund to allow for a constitutional amendment to overturn citizens united and to increase transparency in our political process. now, on this issue, there are no greater experts in the world than the people sitting around this room. we know more than all the political scienceists. and the issue i'm raising today is are you comfortable with an american political system that is increasingly being dominated by a handful of billionaires, whether they are republicans, whether they are democrats whether they are liberals, whether they are conservatives? do you want to run for office and understand that your campaign will be significantly less important than the independent expenditures that may be spent in that campaign? are we a nation in which we pride ourselves on one person, one vote, or do we set aside and say ordinary american you got to vote, but the koch brothers and others can spend hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars. the american people are profoundly disgusted with the kind of political system we are evolving into. and i will admit sometimes

>> one that we are concerned with left and right with the money end compete -- campaigns when citizens united was handed down it was on the presumption of the super pacs for the unlimited amounts of money with them a campaign that is under regulation. to say you would go too far for billionaires to million-dollar contributions but the koch brothers have taken advantage of this landscape but the problem is the federal of regulator that is supposed to enforce the fire wall has never investigated the problem. the f ec is charged with enforcing the firewall. because they are set up to have three democratic commissioners they deadlocked every time so when someone brings them credible evidence it is pretty clear from reading the news that they ask the big donors to fund the super pac so to hire any suggested we have any investigation. but it is hard to say if they're actually breaking the al lot. we don't have the fcc is looking into the issues. with that megadeath fund-raiser events who share her views and the lobbying priorities will funnel all the money together at the last meeting there is news

amendment states, and i quote, "all persons born or naturalized in the united states and subject to the jurisdiction thereof are citizens of the united states and of the state wherein they reside." end of quote. i urge my colleagues, particularly the one offering this amendment pick up the constitution and read it. the 14th amendment is as clear as can be. the citizenship clause has been restated and established by four centuries of anglo-american jurisprudence. the14th amendment erased an exception to citizenship. we certainly remember the dred scott case. it was one of the provocations that led to a +seufl war in this country. we should take this issue extremely seriously. the supreme court has repeatedly ruled that the 14th amendment applies to u.s.-born children of noncitizens. what part of that does the author of this amendment not understand? the court rejected arguments that the son of chinese nationals who were forbidden under the chinese exclusion act from ever becoming a u.s. citizen could be deprived of citizen 147 because of his parents' status. nothing is settled than common law than the doctrine that the c