Scott Tibbs
Blog post
May 29, 2004

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Libertarians shame GOP and Democrats on public financing

I'm not a Libertarian, but that doesn't mean I don't agree with many of the stands the Libertarian Party takes. The LP issued a press release on Wednesday chiding the Republican and Democratic parties for the fact that their conventions are funded by taxpayer dollars to the tune of $14 million each. The Libertarians will accept no federal money for their convention.

The Libertarians, by standing on principle, have given up a resource (federal campaign funds) that would help them spread their message.

The Libertarians make a good point that the nominees are already decided, so the taxpayers are footing the bill for "obscenely expensive, taxpayer-financed political ads." This doesn't even include the large sum of money Bush and Kerry will get for their campaigns in the fall.

Public financing of campaigns was seen as a way to get the money out of politics. It didn't work, but that hasn't stopped proponents of "campaign finance reform" from advocating public funding for Congressional campaigns as well. We don't need more politicians standing in line with their hand out for your money. Full disclosure is the only campaign finance reform we need.