As the debate over campaign finance reform begins, we spend some time examining some of the key provisions of the debate. NPR's Peter Overby reports that the McCain-Feingold bill takes aim at two categories of political money -- soft money and issue ads. Soft money is the unregulated money that citizens and groups can raise for their party. Issue ads are communications with votes that do everything but tell people who to vote for or against. Reformers say banning soft money is essential because of the amount of money has gone from zero to $250 million for each party in the past 20 years. Reformers oppose any restrictions on soft money saying it would be an infringement on free speech.
Copyright 2001 NPR