AP: House to vote on abolishing presidential campaign matching fund next week

[flpoljunkie]

(This on the eve of today's anniversary of the Supreme Court decision )

By DAVID ESPO

The Associated Press
Thursday, January 20, 2011; 6:40 PM

WASHINGTON -- The House will vote next week on legislation to end the system of financing presidential candidates and national party conventions with federal matching funds, Majority Leader Eric Cantor announced Thursday.

He put the estimated savings at $520 million over a decade if the legislation passes Congress and is signed into law.

Cantor, R-Va., said the vote would be a response to a pre-election project in which Republicans invited the public to vote on proposals for reductions in federal spending.

"While some have argued that providing even more taxpayer funding for this program might entice more candidates to participate, eliminating the program altogether would save taxpayers $520 million over 10 years and would require candidates and political parties to rely on private donations rather than tax dollars," read a description on Cantor's website.

more...

[WCGreen]

1. Mixed feelings about this....

[emulatorloo]

2. They are trying to stack the deck in favor of Republicans

[Freddie Stubbs]

7. President Obama rejected matching funds for the 2008 general election

[flpoljunkie]

5. Public financing of all their campaigns would enable them to work for us, not the special interests

It would be money well spent. Of course, most in Congress do not want that. They like an uneven playing field. If people understood how beholden members of Congress are to the special interest lobbyists who bundle contributions for their campaigns--they would be outraged--and rightfully so.

[arcane1]

3. "save taxpayers $520 million over 10 years"

We spent that much in Afghanistan in the past 10 minutes.

Hmm, I wonder how many jobs this savings will create? :shrug:

[ProSense]

4. Let's assess

the Republican agenda for creating jobs thus far:

• Repeal health care reform
  
  
• Repeal taxpayer funding for abortions
  
  
• Repeal federal matching funds for Presidential elections

Ten-Year Impact: 4 million jobs lost.

[flpoljunkie]

12. And a sad assessment for the Republican led House, it is!

[global1]

6. Citizens United Strikes Again.......

The Repugs aren't worried about presidential campaign funding. They'll get it from the corporatocracy.

[Marsala]

8. It won't hurt us directly until 2016 at the earliest

Obama certainly won't be taking matching funds in 2012.

[Hippo_Tron]

9. The matching funds system as it stands is dead anyway

As is any meaningful campaign finance reform at the federal level, at least. As long as Buckley v Valeo is the law of the land, they will be able to drill holes through just about any regulation.

[former9thward]

10. It should be abolished.

No credible candidate will ever take funds from it again. There are too many restrictions. Obama became the first candidate to refuse the funds in 2008 and he will refuse again in 2012. No one challenging him will take the funds either. Get rid of it.

[flpoljunkie]

13. Alright, then. How about returning to the $100 income tax credit for political contributions.

This will encourage people to make small contributions and lessen the influence of the big special interests--both made worse through the recent Citizens United V. FEC ruling and the continuation of the special interest lobbyists' bundled contributions--which fill the campaign coffers of our elected representatives in Washington.

Our campaign finance system is corrupt. The special interests pretty much own Congress.

[flpoljunkie]

11. House roll call vote on this will begin soon. Pelosi is now speaking.

http://www.cspan.org/Live-Video/C-SPAN/

[flpoljunkie]

14. Dems have a motion to recommit H.R. 359, which will fail. Will be followed by vote on H.R. 359.

[flpoljunkie]

15. The bill passed 239 to 160. Ten Dems voted with R's. Walter Jones., R-NC voted No.

H R 359 YEA-AND-NAY 26-Jan-2011 2:12 PM
QUESTION: On Passage
BILL TITLE: To reduce Federal spending and the deficit by terminating taxpayer financing of presidential election campaigns and party conventions

http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2011/roll025.xml