This election year has brought money into sharp focus for many people in the USA. We’ve all seen how the greedy and unregulated behavior of some of the richest corporations have succeeded in bringing our whole economy to near-collapse.
Money has also been a topic when it comes to the presidential campaigns. Barack Obama amassed a huge war chest, but unlike most candidates, his war chest has relied heavily on relatively small donations from individual donors – many giving in amounts less than 100 dollars. In any case, donations to presidential candidates are limited to 2300 dollars per individual.
When it comes to campaigns for a referendum, however, there are no donation limits. In Washington State, the people pushing for legalization of assisted suicide have managed to build a much larger war chest than the opposition. But it isn’t coming from small donors and a lot of it isn’t even coming from within the state.
Columnist Joel Connelly writes:
Out-of-state donors have given life to the campaign for assisted suicide.
Judy Sebba, an educator at the University of Sussex in England, gave $253,555. Loren Parks, a Nevada businessman, put in $250,000. Compassion in Choices, based in Denver, has given $185,000. Oregon Death with Dignity put in $100,000.
A Compassion & Choices political action committee turned over $626,500 to the campaign — all of it from out of state. Andrew Ross, described as a Columbus, Ohio, inventor, put in $400,000.
If ever there was a time to ask if the rich have the interests of the rest of us at heart, now is the time. What do these rich people get out of this? It isn’t their state. At a time when people lack access to health care, are facing foreclosure on their homes, and loss of their jobs, this is what these “compassionate” individuals are choosing as their favorite charity – a campaign to make it easy for old, ill and disabled people to commit suicide.
I think it’s fair it ask what they expect to get out of this and just what kind of agendas they have. –Stephen Drake
More on this from Wesley Smith.