Pay-to-Play Politics + The Money Arms Race – Dallas, Texas

PAY-TO-PLAY POLITICS & THE MONEY ARMS RACE:
A “CONSTITUTIONAL MOMENT” TO RESTORE SANITY?

In today’s America, free enterprise is too often replaced by “pay-to-play,” where firms and special interests use political spending to compete for favors. Business leaders feel pressure to compete in the political money arms race, and lawmakers are forced to spend 30-70% of their time fundraising. This system of political finance has produced crony capitalism that undermines the real drivers of economic growth and corrupts our representative democracy.

In this program we’ll consider whether two constitutional amendments – one to address big money in politics, the other to set term limits for members of Congress – might restore sanity to our political system, strengthen the free-enterprise economy, and make government more accountable to the people it serves.

Funding is generously provided by the Dallas-based Hatton W. Sumners Foundation. This program has been approved by the State Bar of Texas for 1 hour of CLE credit (course #174132590).

• Tickets: $35 per person
• Self-parking in building garage included

What to expect:

• Join us for a conversation with business and political leaders about whether a “grand bargain” between Republicans and Democrats to pass and ratify these two amendments is necessary to preserve freedom, opportunity, and effective self-government.
• We aim to build awareness of the ways unlimited, unaccountable, and concentrated money in our political system creates dysfunction and political polarization, and to consider an amendment to the U.S. Constitution as the appropriate remedy.