There are legitimate grounds for criticizing the Supreme Court’s recent ruling that unions and corporations may spend unlimited amounts of cash on election ads. There is a danger of elections or candidates being, in effect, bought — even though there is lots of big-money influence on campaigns under existing finance rules, too.
But whatever criticisms may be leveled against the high court, Congress is considering an even worse “solution” to the campaign finance problem. Some lawmakers want broad-based public financing of political campaigns.
That’s an idea the American people have already rejected. The vast majority of taxpayers refuse to check a box on their tax returns that would divert a few dollars to fund presidential campaigns — even though they’re assured that doing so would not increase the tax they owe!
Obviously, government funding of expensive political campaigns is not something the public supports.
Individuals ought to back the candidates of their choice, freely and with full public disclosure so the public knows who is getting what from whom. But government funding of campaigns should be avoided.