Presidential candidate Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., has a new plan to tackle money in politics: Create a subsidy for political candidates so lavish that they can raise “exponentially higher” amounts.

Dumping billions of tax dollars into partisan political campaigns is a proposal only a politician could love. Yet it underscores an ugly reality of efforts to improve campaigns. Politicians aren’t interested in reforms that make it harder for them to be a politician.