Soft money is the huge, unlimited contributions from corporations, labor union and wealthy individuals that political parties raise and spend on campaign attack ads and other (1)_____ designed to influence elections. The soft money system undermines campaign finance laws (2)_____ limit contributions and (3)_____ the sources of funds that can be spent on federal campaigns. It provides corporations, labor unions, and wealthy individuals a way to circumvent federal election laws and (4)_____ campaigns with tens of millions of special interest dollars, (5)_____ corporations and unions have been (6)_____ from contributing or spending their treasury finds to influence federal elections since 1907 and 1947, (7)_____. Individuals can contribute to federal (8)_____ through parties and candidates, but only in (9)_____ amounts. The Democratic and Republican parties (10)_____ $262 million in (11)_____ money for the 1996 elections. The parties raise soft money under the (12)_____ that it will be used for general party building activities. (13)_____, soft money pays for campaign ads in the way as issue discussion, political research, polling, fund raising, and get out the-vote efforts all of which affect the (14)_____ of federal elections. Soft money was the source of the 1996 political fund-raising scandals, (15)_____ the selling of the Lincoln bedroom, White House coffees and the influx of foreign money into the (16)_____ campaign. The McCain-Feingold bill (17)_____ the soft money system by prohibiting candidates and national political parties from raising soft money, and by prohibiting state political parties from (18)_____ soft money on activities which affect federal elections. In other (19)_____,the current practice of raising unlimited soft money contributions from corporations, unions and wealthy individuals, and then channeling this money into federal elections would end. The national parties would be (20)_____ to raise all of their funds under the limits and restrictions in the law.