[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 19 (Tuesday, February 8, 2011)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E143]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




        ELIMINATING TAXPAYER FINANCING OF PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                        HON. DENNIS J. KUCINICH

                                of ohio

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, January 26, 2011

       The House in Committee of the Whole House on the State of 
     the Union had under consideration the bill (H.R. 359) to 
     reduce Federal spending and the deficit by terminating 
     taxpayer financing of presidential election campaigns and 
     party conventions:

  Mr. KUCINICH. Mr. Chair, I rise in opposition to H.R. 359, which 
would repeal the presidential public funding system. Thanks to Wall 
Street, unemployment is nominally at 9.4 percent but in actuality is 
much higher and foreclosures continue to defy efforts to get them under 
control. Thousands die from no or inadequate access to medical care 
every year because the health insurance companies have given rise to 
one of the most expensive, least accessible, and lowest quality health 
care systems in the developed world. Defense companies profit 
handsomely off of two major wars, one of which is still expanding 
almost 10 years on. Fossil fuel companies continue to alter the planet 
at a pace that has been declared not only a major environmental and 
economic issue, but also a national security issue. According to the 
Congressional Research Service, ``in 2007, the top 5 percent of wealth 
owners accounted for about 60 percent of all wealth accumulated by 
households.''
  These are also industries who happen to contribute mightily to 
campaigns of both parties. The Center for Responsive Politics estimates 
that special interests spent $281.6 million during the 2010 election 
cycle. These industries are not contributing out of the goodness of 
their hearts, but because their large investments pay dividends. It is 
the cost of doing business.
  This is not a situation in which it is a good idea to give the 
wealthy more influence over the public's governance. But H.R. 359 will 
do that. By reducing the opt-in, voluntary contribution to presidential 
campaigns, this Congress will declare that the vast majority of 
Americans should have less influence over the selection of its 
government and the corporations should have more.
  Instead, we should be demanding full public financing of elections 
with small maximum contributions. We should be amending the 
Constitution to clarify that our founders did not intend to create a 
system in which one dollar equals one vote. And we must reverse the 
corrosive decision to grant corporations the same rights as people in 
the eyes of the law.
  We can do better. A thriving democracy demands it.

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