Public Campaign Action Fund, the leading national group advocating full public financing of elections, strongly criticized Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY) today for his published op-ed in USA Today that calls for the abolishment of the presidential public financing system that was established after the Watergate scandals.

"Senator McConnell apparently prefers to see presidential candidates race around the country scooping up checks from wealthy Americans rather than have the presidential campaign be a contest of ideas," said David Donnelly, national campaigns director of Public Campaign Action Fund. "McConnell wants us all to wear blinders to the fact that our nation is about to see its first billion dollar presidential campaign."

To back up his perspective, McConnell pointed to the declining number of people who check off three dollars on their federal tax forms, writing, "In what amounts to an annual national referendum on the question, an overwhelming majority of taxpayers have always held back their pens."

"Americans make up their tax decisions on tax day and the political decisions on Election Day," responded Donnelly. "April 15th is perhaps the day Americans feel least generous toward their government. What would Senator McConnell say if people decided not to pay taxes because they didn't want to fund an escalation in Iraq?"

"It is unbelievable that three months after voters gave Congress a mandate to clean up corruption Senator McConnell is opposing doing away spending limits and public financing. The presidential system is weak, but it ought to be modernized, not thrown out," commented Donnelly.

Public support for public financing is consistently strong. In a bipartisan survey done last summer, seventy-four percent supported publicly financed elections along with strict spending limits and tough enforcement.

Also known as "Clean Elections," publicly financed elections are law in seven states and two municipalities and bills are currently being considered in state capitols across the country.

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