House Republican Leaders Launch Sneak Attack on the Presidential Public Financing System
House Republican Leaders Launch Sneak Attack on Presidential Public Financing System,
Schedule House Floor Vote to Repeal the System Next Wednesday with No Hearings, No Committee Consideration, No Examination of the Dangers to the Political Process of Killing Rather than Repairing the Presidential System
Statement by Democracy 21 President Fred Wertheimer
House Republicans leaders announced today that they would bring legislation to the House floor next Wednesday to repeal the presidential public financing system.
Not one minute of hearings on the proposal.
Not one minute of Committee consideration of the proposal.
Just a flat-out sneak attack that ignores the normal legislative process that House Speaker John Boehner appeared to commit to using in leading the House.
House Republican leaders promised a fair and open process for considering legislation in this Congress. They appear to have forgotten this commitment before even settling in to their offices.
The process House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) announced today is an absolutely outrageous and indefensible process for considering a presidential public financing system that served the country well for most of its existence but that now needs to be repaired, not repealed.
Representatives David Price (D-NC) and Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) introduced legislation in the last Congress, and are expected to shortly reintroduce the legislation, to update the presidential public financing system to take account of changes that have occurred in presidential campaigns, including their costs.
It is this legislation that the House should be considering and should eventually pass, not the mindless, unconsidered legislation that House Republican leaders are trying to rush through next week prior to President Obama’s State of the Union address.
Ironically, this attack on presidential public financing comes in the face of the first anniversary of the disastrous Citizens United decision on January 21, 2010 that unleashed massive corporate influence-buying expenditures in our national elections.
The Citizens United decision has demonstrated just how essential it is to repair the presidential public financing system and provide presidential candidates with a viable alternative for financing their elections as opposed to having to depend on influence-seeking big donors, lobbyists, bundlers and corporate spenders.
An effective presidential public financing system is a bulwark against the corruption of our democracy and political system.
Throughout most of its history, most presidential candidates have chosen to use the presidential public financing system. The use of the system by candidates only began to decline when the system became outdated.
The presidential public financing system was used by Republican Presidents Ronald Reagan (1980 and 1984) and George H.W. Bush (1988) to finance their primary and general elections and by President George W. Bush (2000 and 2004) to finance his general election races. The system also was used by Democratic Presidents Jimmy Carter (1976) and Bill Clinton (1992 and 1996) to finance their presidential primary and general elections.
The Republican party did not have a problem in requesting and receiving public financing funds to pay for their national presidential nominating conventions. The Republican party, along with the Democratic party, received public funds to finance their national conventions in 1976, 1980, 1984, 1988, 1992, 1996, 2000, 2004 and 2008.
It is essential to the health of our democracy to defeat the effort next week by House Republican leaders to repeal the presidential public financing system. Instead, the House should move forward on hearings and Committee consideration of the Price-Van Hollen legislation to repair the presidential public financing system.
