Stop Giving Donations to Politicians (Especially the Incumbents)
With Congress and the President out in full campaign mode doing everything they can to gin up dollars for their coffers, while deferring all of their responsibilities to any other entity that will take them, it seems to me that holding back on the donations to the campaigns is a pretty smart thing to do.
Howard Schultz, Starbucks CEO, made a pretty vocal plea to his fellow CEO’s to hold back on giving to campaigns of those that should be in Washington fixing the various issues of the day.
From CNN Money:
Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz is fed up with Washington. And he is doing something about it.
Spurred by what he describes as a failure of leadership on the part of lawmakers, Schultz is mounting a one-man bull rush against a political culture that has “chosen to put partisan and ideological purity over the well being of the people.” What does that mean? No more political donations — not for anybody.
And he’s recruiting other CEOs to join him. “I am asking that all of us forgo political contributions until the Congress and the President return to Washington and deliver a fiscally, disciplined long term debt and deficit plan to the American people,” Schultz wrote in a letter that was passed on to members of the NYSE and Nasdaq.
While I like where Schultz is going with this, I’d prefer it be a bit more focused on those that are incumbent. Incumbents hold several advantages over other candidates, fair or otherwise, but non-incumbents have no way of fixing the issues, since they are not in Washington to work on them.
So, as long as Congress defers their problems to Super Congresses, or extensions, or limit raises, or whatever other method of problem avoidance they choose… DON’T FUND THEIR CAMPAIGNS! Stop giving another red cent to incumbent candidates and tell them why.
Tags: campaign contributions, Howard Schultz, Incumbent, politicians
