Today, The Two Mikes spoke with Melissa Witte (@villagecrazylady) who studies and writes about campaign financing in the United States.
Ms. Witte said that Political Action Committees (PACs) are an amazingly effective means of building personal fortunes.
How so?
Well, when a politician starts a PAC he tends to raise more money than he needs and, under the legislation which legalized PACs, the politician keeps the money that was raised but not spent.
As an example, Ms. Witte said that in his 2022 re-election campaign North Carolina Senator Tim Scott raised $52 million for his campaign and spent $38 million of that total.
His Democratic rival raised $200 million and spent %150 million in the campaign.
Under the pertinent legislation, neither Senator Scott nor his rival need have any qualms about keeping their excess campaign funds.
Ms. Witte argued that at least 80-percent of the Congress and Senate are building fortunes via this excess campaign funding.
Ms. Witte explained much more about what was found in her studies and it is riveting to listen to her speak.
We hope she will come back and speak to us after the 2024 national election.