Public Financing, George Bush and Barack Obama: Why the Publicly Funded Campaign Does Not Work, and What We Can Do to Fix It

After the Supreme Court upheld the Federal Election Campaign Act in Buckley v. Valeo, the modern system for campaign finance was born; since the 1980 election, most presidential candidates have accepted some form of public financing. While the current campaign finance system is a major upgrade over the previous system whereby campaigns were funded by a small group of wealthy donors, there are still two major problems. First, the current system discourages the participation of the majority of voters in the political process. Second, the current laws do not reduce the cost of running for President. With these issues in mind, the author briefly proposes a solution that will continue the improvements brought on by the FECA and update the system for the 21st century, using the 2008 Presidential election between Senator Barack Obama and Senator John McCain as a model

Public Financing, George Bush, and Barack Obama: Why the Publicly Funded Campaign Does Not Work, and What We Can Do to Fix It

Today, there are very different public financing rules for both the general and primary election. In the primary, if a candidate meets the requirements for public funding, the federal government will match up to $250 of an individual’s total contributions to an eligible candidate. In order for this to occur, candidates must adopt strict finance limits. In the general election, if an eligible candidate accepts public funding, he or she must cease fundraising after the conclusion of the primaries, and spend the public funding that the Federal Election Commission (FEC) grants them. This money covers all campaign expenditures, except for compliance issues. While the current campaign finance system is a major upgrade over the previous system, there are still two major problems. First, the current system discourages the participation of the majority of voters in the political process. Second, the current laws do not reduce the cost of running for President. With these issues in mind, I will briefly propose a solution that will continue the improvements brought on by the FECA and update the system for the 21st century

Public Financing, George Bush and Barack Obama: Why the Publicly Funded Campaign Does Not Work, and What We Can Do to Fix It

After the Supreme Court upheld the Federal Election Campaign Act in Buckley v. Valeo, the modern system for campaign finance was born; since the 1980 election, most presidential candidates have accepted some form of public financing. While the current campaign finance system is a major upgrade over the previous system whereby campaigns were funded by a small group of wealthy donors, there are still two major problems. First, the current system discourages the participation of the majority of voters in the political process. Second, the current laws do not reduce the cost of running for President. With these issues in mind, the author briefly proposes a solution that will continue the improvements brought on by the FECA and update the system for the 21st century, using the 2008 Presidential election between Senator Barack Obama and Senator John McCain as a model