This is off-the cuff because I’m fucking furious:
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Labelled the “Let the People Decide Clean Campaign Act”, H.R. 4694 was introduced earlier this month in the House. Under the guise of campaign finance reform, or some other such gobbledygook, the proposal outlines in gory detail how it intends to set caps on total spending on a per congressional district basis, dividing the “political pie” pro rata according to the various parties previous voter turnout. HR 4694 also sets lower caps for spending in districts which have lower median incomes.

By establishing spending caps, HR 4694 can only serve to restrict the freedom of choice that voters may currently excercise – it eliminitates any hope of reasonable, legitimate competition being raised by any third or independent party in the future. This is anathema to freedom, to diversity of opinion and of thought, and serves only to further the class-interest of the “two-party system.”

This violates every idea of freedom and of choice that the founders of this country ehld in such high regard. In wretched contrast to Locke’s “Government, with consent of the governed,” it’s now devolved into “Government, with the consent of the government, at the expense of the people.” When the government begins imposing restrictions that only serve to benefit the established political gentry, in a roundabout way, telling us who we may vote for, and how we me do so, it’s time, as Mencken put it, “must be tempted at times to hoist the black flag and begin to slit throats.“

If you believe I’ve erred in my rudimentary analysis of HR 4694, please let me know. I’m certainly not a congressional scholar.
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Cross-posted at Bureaucrash, where it appears as “Bureacracy of the Week.” And it’s only tuesday!

[edited 23:13 16Feb06 to quote Mencken’s clause in its entirety]