WILLIAMSON, W. Va. — Don Blankenship, Constitution Party candidate for President of the United States, released the following policy position today.
Constitution Party Presidential candidate Don Blankenship announced today that as President of the United States he will declare a “war on government corruption”—corruption, which often comes from excessive control by a single or a few government officials. Corruption which is more common in a dictatorship form of government versus in a government controlled by the people, such as was envisioned by America’s founders.
Blankenship said, “We Americans will not be able to end or even to reduce the massive government corruption in our government until we end the stranglehold that the political parties and their leaders have on government policy and lawmaking. A stranglehold that I believe results in problems such as the opiate drug epidemic. A stranglehold that can also result in lucrative financial arrangements with foreign governments for privileged government officials and their family members.”
One often recommended solution to excessive control being placed in the hands of lifetime politicians has been term limits and America definitely needs Congressional term limits. Unfortunately, term limits require a difficult to achieve Constitutional amendment.
But there is something else which can be done to prevent politicians from being able to become lifetime Congressional members even while ignoring America’s best interest. It can be done without a Constitutional amendment. That something involves ending the domination of the Republican and Democratic parties over our elections.
Blankenship added, “As President, my ‘war on government corruption’ will end the two-party control of our elections. It will do so partially by outlawing what are called Hill Committees. Many Americans are not aware of ‘Hill Committees.’ There are four substantial ‘Hill Committees’: both the Republicans and the Democrats have one for the U.S. Senate and one for the House of Representatives.
“These Committees operate under the guise of being ‘political action committees’ (PACs) but are not typical PACs. Rather, these PACs would be more properly called ‘Government Control Committees.’”
Blankenship continued, “These Hill Committees or Government Control Committees afford incumbent Senators and House Members an insurmountable advantage over their non-establishment challengers in Congressional elections. Few, if any, challengers can beat incumbents who receive millions of dollars in support from these traditional party establishment Committees.
“These Committees also create a direct conflict of interest between an incumbent’s need for campaign financing and the incumbent’s position on legislative issues, i.e. how the incumbent will vote on proposed legislation. The interests of average Americans therefore take a backseat to the interests of large donors to Hill Committees.”
Blankenship further explained, “In the upcoming 2020 election, these Hill or Government Control Committees will receive billions of dollars from donors to influence the election in favor of their preferred incumbents. Millions of that money may even be spent in Primary Elections on behalf of the candidate favored by incumbent establishment party leaders such as Mitch McConnell and Nancy Pelosi.
“These Hill Committees are headed by Congressional members. Thereby, they control the allocation of funds from these committees to favored candidate election campaigns. This places far too much opportunity in the hands of a few Congressional members to influence elections.
“This excessive influence over elections leads to electing legislators who are more beholden to their political party leaders rather than to the voters they are supposed to represent. It also allows undue influence by insurance, drug, and other international mega-companies which contribute heavily to these committees. One result is the current opiate crisis. It also contributed to America’s health care crisis. After all, drug and insurance companies contribute large amounts of money to these Hill Committees to obtain government control.
“Another result of these committees, in addition to their great influence over elections, is that Senate and House Leaders, such as Senate Majority Leader McConnell and House Minority Leader Pelosi, have tremendous leverage on incumbent legislators,” said Blankenship. “This forces far too much power in the hands of just 4 of America’s 535 Congressional Members. In essence, any Republican Senator who dares to oppose Senator McConnell’s legislative positions may find themselves far short of the campaign funds he /she needs from the National Republican Senatorial Committee (a Hill Committee) for their next election campaign.”
Blankenship concluded by saying, “The result of all this is that Congressional incumbents are very hard to unseat and many serve lifetime terms. It also contributes to the near straight-line Party votes Americans often witness in Congress. Straight Party or near straight Party voting on a number of key legislative matters evidence this truth. The most recent example of which being the vote in the House to impeach President Trump.
“Americans complain constantly about their government. They rank Congress at the bottom as to job performance. But they can change Congress only by voting out incumbents. If Americans truly want a Congress that acts on their behalf versus on behalf of special interest groups, they must stop voting for these major party candidates who are then controlled by the likes of McConnell and Pelosi. If not, the interest of most Americans will always be in the back seat.”