Posted on 11/23/2003 2:53:00 AM PST by kattracks
WASHINGTON -- It speaks well of Dick Gephardt that he speaks so uncomfortably when compelled to speak -- as he understandably would prefer not to do -- about campaign finance law. He is honest and hence he acknowledges the incompatibility of the campaign law he supported last year with political spending practices that may support him next year -- and with the Constitution.Howard Dean has opted out of the public funding system because he can raise more money on his own than public funding would provide, more than his principal rival, Gephardt, can raise, more than all his rivals -- except perhaps John Kerry -- can find in the family piggy bank. And because Dean can afford to spend more money, especially against Gephardt in Iowa, than is permitted by the absurd state-by-state spending limits that come with public funding. Yes, the government, that wizard of foreknowledge, knows exactly how much should be spent on political speech in each year in each state.
It is mostly Democrats who say they care about campaign finance reform, but the fact that Dean has suffered no measurable loss of support by opting out of the public financing system indicates that not even Democrats really care about it. In fact, it is arithmetically certain that most Democrats, like most of the rest of the public, dislike public funding of politics. Eighty-nine percent of all taxpayers refuse to use the checkoff provision that allocates $3 to public funding of nomination contests -- even though using the checkoff increases the taxpayer's liability not a penny. Many more than 11 percent of taxpayers are Democrats.
(Excerpt) Read more at townhall.com ...
I dispute this.
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