Dems Expected To Decline Public Funding

National Review Online: Nominee Likely To Maintain Big Spending Advantage Over McCain

(National Review Online)  This column was written by Stephen Spruiell.

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It’s official: Whoever the Democrats eventually nominate will face an opponent, John McCain, who has opted for public financing and is therefore constrained by spending limits during the general election. No matter who wins in Pennsylvania today, the Democratic nominee is likely to decline public funds, keep raising millions of dollars and maintain a big spending advantage over McCain throughout the fall.

On Monday, the Politico reported that McCain’s finance records show that he has begun the process of returning donations earmarked for the general election. McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds confirmed to National Review Online that McCain is preparing to accept public funds. Bounds also voiced concerns that likely Democratic nominee Barack Obama might back out of his commitment to accept public financing.

Last September, Obama checked ”yes” on a questionnaire that asked whether he would accept public financing in the general election if the Republican nominee did so as well. Beneath the question, Obama elaborated on his past support for public financing of campaigns, as well as his commitment to “aggressively pursue” a publicly financed general election.

Once it became clear, however, that Obama could raise much more than McCain in the fall, he began to change his story. Spokesman Bill Burton insisted that Obama’s answer on the questionnaire did not constitute a “pledge,” and Obama told a group of donors earlier this month that “We have created a parallel public financing system where the American people decide if they want to support a campaign they can get on the Internet and finance it, and they will have as much access and influence over the course and direction of our campaign that has traditionally been reserved for the wealthy and the powerful.”

Bounds says this kind of language “may serve as caution to voters, because [it] makes it appear that he doesn’t have the ability to live up to his word and accept public financing. However, we’ll just have to wait and see. . . . We have to move forward with the understanding that he’s going to live up to his word, but there are things about his recent language that give pause.”

Hillary Clinton, of course, never committed to take public funds in the general election. She’s been raising private money for the general election since she launched her bid last year, and she has already amassed $16 million in cash for the fall, though she trails Obama in overall fundraising. He’s raised over $236 million so far, to her $195 million. By contrast, McCain has only raised a total of $72 million thus far.

The temptation to forgo public financing and outspend McCain is even greater in light of John Kerry’s decision to take public funds and agree to spending limits in 2004. It’s a decision Kerry and his strategists said they lived to regret, and former Kerry aide Tad Devine encouraged Obama to go back on his word even if it risked damaging his integrity. “[S]ometimes you've got to say, ‘Listen, I changed my mind. . . . I’m doing it because I want to win this race, and if Senator McCain doesn’t like it, it’s too bad.’ ” Devine told the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel.

Obama is not the only candidate whose declared principles are threatening to become a liability in the money race. The limitations McCain will accept as a publicly financed candidate will not apply to outside groups who want to spend their own money to criticize Obama. But McCain has spent so much of his career attacking these groups and their influence in politics, Republican fundraisers are having a hard time getting them to help McCain.

And McCain will need all the help he can get. With a donor base of close to 1.5 million, Obama could easily raise enough money to outspend McCain in the general election. According to public-financing rules, McCain will receive an $84 million grant from the federal government. In exchange, he will not be allowed to spend any outside money on campaign expenditures, except for legal and accounting fees.

Public money comes from taxpayers who check a box on their tax returns indicating that they’d like $3 from their tax payment to go into the Presidential Election Campaign Fund. Conservatives generally oppose this program because it diverts tax dollars that should go toward balancing the budget into a subsidy account for politicians.

Some - like the Cato Institute’s John Samples - looked forward to 2008 as the year that the PECF became obsolete. With dwindling numbers of taxpayers supporting the program and candidates raising ever-increasing sums, it looked as though it might happen. Many in the press predicted that none of the campaigns would take federal funds this fall, but that was before McCain’s fundraising troubles began. Obama made his pledge back when it seemed unlikely that McCain would reciprocate. Now he’ll face an irresistible temptation to take the money and run.

[hungry1968]

So the only candidate of the three to break the McCain Feingold campaign finance reform laws, is McCain?!?!?!



LOL!!!!!

What a joke!!!

[lilvinnyb]

WHILE OBAMA DECRYS POLITICS AS USUAL.....ITS JUST POLITICS AS USUAL WITH HIM.

[termtex01]

"How is anybody going to take him seriously when says he''''s about minimizing government spending to create income growth when the money is flowing in the opposite direction and it''''s actually the Democrats who are walking the talk?

Posted by SamTheTVCat at 01:36 PM : Apr 22, 2008"

I suggest you look up who the big ''pork barrel'' ear markers are between McCain, Clinton and Obama.

Hint. McCain doesn''t ear mark anything, especially a Woodstock Museum (a-la Shrillary).

[termtex01]

"Posted by MCVet "

Why don''t you address the meat of the argument instead of harkening back to your days in the Hitler Youth, MCfalseVet?

The Democratic candidates PROMISED to accept Public Funding if the Republican nominee did, but now they say they won''t.

And you know why, just as well as anyone else. They want limitless pockets to draw from so they can BUY the nomination from the Democratic National Convention Superdelgates, rather than win it fair and square.

[mcvet]

Gee, wasn''''t it just a little while ago the McCain was thinking about not using public funds? And didn''''t the DNC talk about suing? When a republican wants to do it, it is terrible, but now that the democraps want to do it, suddenly it is just fine. Democraps are hateful, spiteful, devisive, bitter, and GREEDY.


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Posted by msgtsteve at 01:35 PM : Apr 22, 2008
+ report abuse

You really should pick a better source for your news there sparky. The suit was because McSame used the federal funds to obtain a LOAN because he was busted. Once he got the loan he then wanted to op out of that funding. It''s the same thing the Fascist Republican''s did with our Balanced Budget don''t you know. Sieg Heil Bush

[blackspirit3]

FLIP FLOP HILLARY????
Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton discussed actions that would warrant a nuclear response that would %u201Ctotally obliterate%u201D Iran. The New York Senator told ABC''s %u201CGood Morning America%u201D Tuesday and MSNBC''s %u201CCountdown With Keith Olbermann%u201D Monday that, if president, she would be willing to use nuclear weapons against Iran if they orchestrated a nuclear attack on Israel.

Clinton, who has tried to cast her rival as too inexperienced for the job of commander in chief, said of Obama''s stance on Pakistan: "I don''t believe that any president should make any blanket statements with respect to the use or non-use of nuclear weapons."

[blackspirit3]

Hillary is betting on white racism to win. Is that a win? Hoping that White America will reject a candidate on racial terms. We all know had Obama ever lied about being shot at by a gang on the streets of Chicago he would be thrown out of the race. Hillary is allowed to remain in the race while the media create stories to beat Obama with, to say a man who just finish paying off his student loans is an elitist is retarded at best.

Obama went to college and received a Law Degree because he didn%u2019t know enough to help the churches and people of his community with just having a 4 year Degree. How is that elitist, who goes to college to become a lawyer to help poor communities? Not Hillary, she went to Walmart. Not Bill he went to Canada and rallied against the war.

[samthetvcat]

---"It%u2019s official: Whoever the Democrats eventually nominate will face an opponent, John McCain, who has opted for public financing"---

How is anybody going to take him seriously when says he''s about minimizing government spending to create income growth when the money is flowing in the opposite direction and it''s actually the Democrats who are walking the talk?

He should have opted out and just spent what he could afford instead of expecting all of us to foot his bills . . .