s/illegal influence/protected 1st amendment speech/g SCOTUS said you can't regulate campaign funding basically at all, because money spent to effect speech is

s/illegal influence/protected 1st amendment speech/g SCOTUS said you can't regulate campaign funding basically at all, because money spent to effect speech is speech, and thus money spent on a political campaign is political speech. If you actually were to say "I will pass this bill for $X", then that would be a bribe, and you could get kicked out of office or go to jail for that. But spending 30 minutes with a lobbyist behind closed doors and them just handing your campaign a check later on? Perfectly legal. The hush-hush nature of the operation means the only way you can squeeze a business for money is by getting everyone else angry at them too so that the business starts throwing campaign contributions around. From the congressperson's side it's less "I sold my vote to this person" and more "If I vote for this, then I won't get all these contributions anymore." The difference between a bribe and a tip is solely in the order of operations.