WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama may have a strong message for the middle class and voters in his State of the Union address, but it won’t matter unless he and Congress first do something about the cash-flooded election system, Rep. John Sarbanes (D-Md.) argued Tuesday.
“There’s a declining number of people who even watch the State of the Union every year. You just had an election where you had the lowest turnout since 1942 in a national election,” Sarbanes told HuffPost shortly before the president’s annual speech.
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“If you don’t have that last piece of the message, they say, ‘That’s great… but you’ll never get it done because special interests run the show.’ We have to change that narrative.”
Sarbanes said he would pay for his matching fund by closing tax loopholes on some of the industries that employ the lobbyists who hold such sway in Washington.
