This week, the House is scheduled to consider repealing public financing of presidential elections. The bill, sponsored by Tom Cole, R-Okla., correctly puts an end to taxpayer-funded subsidies given to some presidential candidates and political party conventions. The presidential public financing system is a fossil of the 1970s, and the sort of cumbersome regime that only an inside-the-beltway policy wonk could love. For example, to qualify for primary funding, you must raise more than $5,000 in 20 states (but only the first $250 per individual contributor counts).
Back in the 1970s, this may have signaled a broad base of presidential-level support; but today even some mayoral candidates do that in a day, probably even before lunch. Once deemed “eligible” by the Federal Election Commission (FEC), you must agree to both national and separate state-by-state spending limits. You also must agree to a “voluntary” audit by the FEC (past audits have included fascinating topics such as whether running television ads in Boston, Massachusetts, counts against New Hampshire spending limits).
