Oklahoma Republican Rep. Tom Cole forcefully pushed back against the White House’s opposition to his legislation, which would terminate taxpayer funding of presidential election campaigns and party conventions, Tuesday.
“The Presidential Election Campaign Fund is the very definition of frivolous Washington spending,” Cole said. “We’re not talking about investing in our infrastructure or spending money to improve the lives of average Americans– this program pays for political party conventions and to prop up the candidacies of presidential hopefuls.”
Despite refusing federal funding during his 2008 run for the presidency (as accepting public money would have prevented him from raising money from private donors), the Obama administration wants nothing to do with Cole’s proposal.
In a statement of administration policy released by the Office of Management and Budget Tuesday morning, the White House expressed its extreme displeasure at the prospect of eliminating federal campaign funding.
“Its effect would be to expand the power of corporations and special interests in the Nation’s elections; to force many candidates into an endless cycle of fundraising at the expense of engagement with voters on the issues; and to place a premium on access to large donor or special interest support, narrowing the field of otherwise worthy candidates,” the statement reads. “After a year in which the Citizens United decision rolled back a century of law to allow corporate interests to spend vast sums in the Nation’s elections and to do so without disclosing the true interests behind them, this is not the time to further empower the special interests or to obstruct the work of reform.”
According to the Congressional Budget Office, over the next 10 years, the bill would save taxpayers $617 million.
“With a $1.4 trillion deficit, both parties need to work together to cut spending. We’ve got a lot of tough decisions ahead, and it’s not a good sign that the Democrats are squealing about cutting a program only 7 percent of Americans support,” Cole said. “This bill provides an early test of the president’s commitment to reducing the deficit. If the administration won’t support the elimination of an outdated program that doesn’t benefit a single ordinary American, what cuts will they support?”
The policy protects the public from rich special interests, according to the White House.
“The Presidential election public financing system was enacted in the aftermath of the Watergate scandal to free the Nation’s elections from the influence of corporations and other wealthy special interests. Rather than candidates having to rely on raising large sums of private money in order to run, the system provides qualifying presidential candidates with the option of accepting matching funds in the primary and a public grant in the general election.”
The bill was approved in the House Rules Committee Tuesday and is scheduled to come up for a vote Wednesday.