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Barack Obama
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Government and Elections
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"We've made the decision not to participate in the public financing system for the general election.... It was not an easy decision, especially because I support a robust system of public financing of elections. But the public financing of presidential elections, as it exists today, is broken. And we face opponents who have become masters of gaming this broken system."
Co-sponsored the Fair Elections Now Act of 2007 (S. 1285), a bill to provide public financing for Senate elections.
Q: "If you are nominated for President in 2008 and your major opponents agree to forgo private funding in the general election campaign, will you participate in the presidential public financing system?" OBAMA: "Yes. I have been a long-time advocate for public financing of campaigns combined with free television and radio time as a way to reduce the influence of moneyed special interests.... If I am the Democratic nominee, I will aggressively pursue an agreement with the Republican nominee to preserve a publicly financed general election."
Q: "As President, would you support and work to enact legislation to strengthen, keep the same, or repeal the presidential public financing system?" OBAMA: "Strengthen."
“All you see from Washington is another scandal or petty argument. And so we get discouraged. Half of us don't vote. The half of us who do vote were voting against somebody instead of voting for something.”
“Campaigns last too long and they cost too much money. And they're disproportionately influenced by Washington insiders, which is why it's not going to be enough just to change political parties [in the presidency]. But we also have to make sure that we are mobilizing Americans across race & regions, if we're actually going to bring these changes about. Change doesn't happen from the top down, it happens from the bottom up. It's because millions of voices get mobilized and organized.”
"...In either case, Pritzker's words are the latest in Obama's remarkably swift and complete consolidation of Democratic Party power. It's an unprecedented seizure of control that has built him, over the course of a year, the most powerful field organization and the largest financial network in American politics, leaving many existing structures -- traditional party organizations in many states, the Clintons' long-nurtured national network -- in the dust. Just last summer, Matt Bai's widely accepted analysis identified the ‘billionaires’ and the ‘bloggers’ as the key, emergent players in the Democratic Party's infrastructure. But Obama has marginalized both groups. Pritzker's words are part of a move to keep Obama's grip on the sole important funnel of Democratic money this year. And his campaign has largely ignored the existing network of liberal bloggers, and actively opposes their embrace of fierce partisanship."
"We have to use technology to open up our democracy. It's no coincidence that one of the most secretive administrations in our history has favored special interests and pursued policies that could not stand up to the sunlight. As president, I'm going to change that. We will put government data online in universally accessible formats. I'll let citizens track federal grants, contracts, earmarks and lobbying contracts. I'll let you participate in government forums, ask questions in real-time, offer suggestions that will be reviewed before decisions are made. And let you comment on legislation before it is signed."
From Obama's official campaign website: "The Bush Administration has been one of the most secretive, closed administrations in American history. Our nation’s progress has been stifled by a system corrupted by millions of lobbying dollars contributed to political campaigns, the revolving door between government and industry, and privileged access to inside information-all of which have led to policies that favor the few against the public interest. An Obama presidency will use cutting-edge technologies to reverse this dynamic, creating a new level of transparency, accountability and participation for America's citizens."
Co-sponsored the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006 (S. 2590), a bill "to require full disclosure of all entities and organizations receiving Federal funds."
Q: "In the interest of increasing transparency and public accountability, should incumbent Senators, Senate candidates, and Senate campaign committees be required to file their campaign finance disclosure reports electronically?" OBAMA: "Yes."
Q: “Is there any executive power the Bush administration has claimed or exercised that you think is unconstitutional?” OBAMA: “I believe the Administration's use of executive authority to over-classify information is a bad idea. We need to restore the balance between the necessarily secret and the necessity of openness in our democracy--which is why I have called for a National Declassification Center.”
"Under the Presidential Records Act, presidential records are supposed to be released to the public 12 years after the end of a presidential administration. In November 2001, President Bush issued an order that gave current and former presidents and vice presidents broad authority to withhold presidential records or delay their release indefinitely. As president, I will nullify the Bush order and establish procedures to ensure the timely release of presidential records."
Primary sponsor of the CLEAN UP Act (S. 2179), a bill "to require openness in conference committee deliberations and full disclosure of the contents of conference reports and all other legislation."
"...I believe very strongly in transparency. One of the things that I did was to pass a bill with Tom Coburn, very conservative Republican but a sincere fiscal conservative. We got together and created what we call Google for Government. It's a searchable database, where every single dollar of federal spending is posted on the Internet, so that ordinary voters can take a look. If they see a bridge to nowhere being built, they know where it's going and who sponsored it. If they see a no-bid contract going to Halliburton, they can check that out, too. The idea is that we open up the process so that the American people can make judgments about whether or not government is doing what it's supposed to be doing with its taxpayer money."
Q: “...You do take money from state lobbyists. You took $1.5 million from employees who work for federal lobbying firms. There seems to be a real inconsistency between the amount of money you raise and where it's coming from, and your rhetoric.” OBAMA: “...I have said repeatedly that money is the original sin in politics and I am not sinless. I have raised money in order to bankroll my campaigns. But what I have been consistent about is fighting to reduce the influence of money in politics at every level of government…”
Obama voted YES on the the Commission to Strengthen Confidence in Congress Act of 2006 (S. 2349), a bill to "provide greater transparency with respect to lobbying activities, to amend the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 to clarify when organizations described in section 527 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 must register as political committees, and for other purposes."
"The problem we have is that Washington has become a place where good ideas go to die. They go to die because the lobbyists and special interests have a strangle-hold on the agenda in Washington. They go to die in Washington because too many politicians are interested in scoring political points rather than bridging differences in order to get things done.”
From Obama's official campaign website: "Obama and Biden will create a centralized Internet database of lobbying reports, ethics records, and campaign finance filings in a searchable, sortable and downloadable format."
"I think we have to make it easier to vote. And I'm assuming that Why Tuesday is in favor of...having it on weekends so that more people can vote. Same-day registration I think in a lot of states has been shown to make sense. Early voting is another way to encourage people and make it more convenient for them to vote."
"As a nation, we have to find the right balance between privacy and security, between executive authority to face threats and uncontrolled power. What protects us, and what distinguishes us, are the procedures we put in place to protect that balance, namely judicial warrants and congressional review. These aren't arbitrary ideas. These are the concrete safeguards that make sure that surveillance hasn't gone too far. That someone is watching the watchers."
Q: “Is there any executive power the Bush administration has claimed or exercised that you think is unconstitutional? Anything you think is simply a bad idea?” OBAMA: “First and foremost, I agree with the Supreme Court's several decisions rejecting the extreme arguments of the Bush Administration, most importantly in the Hamdi and Hamdan cases. I also reject the view, suggested in memoranda by the Department of Justice, that the President may do whatever he deems necessary to protect national security, and that he may torture people in defiance of congressional enactments. In my view, torture is unconstitutional, and certain enhanced interrogation techniques like ‘waterboarding’ clearly constitute torture.”
“Signing statements have been used by presidents of both parties, dating back to Andrew Jackson. While it is legitimate for a president to issue a signing statement to clarify his understanding of ambiguous provisions of statutes and to explain his view of how he intends to faithfully execute the law, it is a clear abuse of power to use such statements as a license to evade laws that the president does not like or as an end-run around provisions designed to foster accountability. I will not use signing statements to nullify or undermine congressional instructions as enacted into law..."
"It is illegal and unwise for the President to disregard international human rights treaties that have been ratified by the United States Senate, including and especially the Geneva Conventions. The Commander-in-Chief power does not allow the President to defy those treaties."
“If we are to take seriously our claim to a government of, by, and for the people, Washington shouldn't be just the seat of our Government, but it also should reflect the core values and fundamental promise of our democracy. Denying the right to vote to citizens who are equally subject to the laws of this Nation undermines a central premise of our representative Government. The right to vote belongs to every American, regardless of race, creed, gender, or geography.”
Co-sponsored the District of Columbia House Voting Rights Act of 2007 (S. 1257), a bill "to provide the District of Columbia a voting seat and the State of Utah an additional seat in the House of Representatives."
"In our great democracy, it's a shame that residents of the District who pay taxes, fight in wars, and enjoy the same rights as every other American have no voting representation in our nation's capital."
"The first thing I would do would be to move forward with an agenda to make sure that we give D.C. the opportunity to elect its own representatives and have some political power on Capitol Hill. I think that pursuing an agenda that was put forward by a Republican like Congressman Davis as well as Eleanor Holmes Norton, to make sure there is representation that would make a big difference."
As a state Senator in Illinois during the 2002 session, Obama introduced S.B. 1789, a bill to adopt instant runoff voting “for the offices of mayor, city clerk, and city treasurer” so long as the use of IRV "otherwise conformed to law.”