tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29010340.post7364927709327960892..comments2023-07-05T07:13:43.612-04:00Comments on ReformNY: Lawmakers Aren't Snack FoodsBrennanCenterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09417355176368047275noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29010340.post-52908672391560805722007-04-10T11:06:00.000-04:002007-04-10T11:06:00.000-04:00Whatever else may be wrong with public financing o...Whatever else may be wrong with public financing of political campaigns, there are 2 insurmountable practical problems: 1. Whom do we include?, and 2. How much do we give them? <BR/><BR/>Let's consider the first problem first. Giving public money to candidates is not as easy as it sounds. Should Neo-Nazis be eligible for public financing? If we say yes, then I think most of us would object to seeing our tax dollars go to financing Neo-Nazi campaigns. If we say no, then who will decide which political views are unacceptable and what criteria will that person use? <BR/><BR/>Now, let's consider the second problem. It's not obvious to me that public financing will provide candidates with sufficient funds to run meaningful campaigns. Incumbents have access to extraordinary non-campaign resources their rivals cannot match. For example, it's just much easier to persuade the press to attend an incumbent's press conference to announce a new policy initiative or achievement than it is to persuade the press to attend a mere candidate's press conference. The former is news; the latter is politics. Consequently, incumbents will gain a significant competitive advantage by underfunding their rivals' campaigns; that is, they would love to fight the campaign on non-campaign resources because they will always have more of them! <BR/><BR/>More generally, we've been experimenting with campaign finance reform for 30 years now, and what we've seen is higher and higher re-election rates for incumbents and more and more nepotism in politics. Of course, any economist would have predicted this because regulations disproportionately impact new entrants, who lack the resources to overcome the costs of these regulations.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com