Pays For Itself

Submitted by Katie Schlieper on Mon, 04/23/2007 - 1:18pm.

Though it doesn't mention the Fair Elections Act by name, this Orlando Sentinel editorial is strongly in favor of a public financing system for congressional elections in the model of Arizona and Maine's Clean Elections programs, arguing that those states offer a much better example than Florida when it comes to reducing the influence of special interest money.

 

The Sentinel doesn't shy away from the question of cost in their endorsement, showing just how much a public financing system could actually save in the long run:

 

The estimated cost of publicly funding a two-year congressional election cycle, $1.75 billion, may sound large. Actually, it's a tiny fraction of the nearly $3 trillion federal budget. By comparison, Congress poured $64 billion worth of pet projects into legislation last year alone. Because many of those projects are paybacks for campaign contributors, a public financing system for congressional races could easily pay for itself.

 

 

1 comment
. . . . .

Great information! Maybe the discussion we should really have is about how much it's costing us not to have public funding.

The kind of money that's needed to win elections today isn't given without some accountability on the part of the recipient or expectations on the part of the donor.

If we want greater accountability from our elected officials, we have to return political influence to voters.


Submitted by just6dollars (not verified) on Tue, 04/24/2007 - 9:50am.

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