U.S. Newswire

12 Dec 14:14

Contact: Tom McClusky, Pete Sepp, or Jerry Terry, 703-683-5700

all of the National Taxpayers Union Foundation

While would-be reformers point to the 2000 Presidential Election in making their case to clean up campaigns with public financing, a detailed study released today by the non-partisan National Taxpayers Union Foundation (NTUF) draws a different conclusion. A majority of the money spent in this year's battle for the White House has already come from taxpayers' pockets.

Pundits continue to ponder who will be the winner of what they call the Presidential 'football game,' but the true losers in this Super Bowl of American politics may be the spectators themselves, said NTUF Senior Policy Analyst Tom McClusky. So far taxpayers at the federal, state, and local levels have contributed over $327 million to elect a President -- more than enough to buy a professional football team of their own. In keeping with the pundits' analogy, McClusky divided the costs into four separate phases:

-- First Half (Primaries). The total amount of Federal Matching Funds given to Presidential candidates who qualified for them under election laws was $61 million. Just two of the 11 qualified candidates -- Republican George W. Bush and Libertarian Harry Browne -- refused such funding. Ironically, many opponents who accused Bush of being beholden to 'big oil' and 'big tobacco' were themselves beholden to big government, McClusky quipped.

-- Halftime Show (Conventions). City, state, and federal taxpayers fronted 71 percent of the costs associated with the Republican Convention in Philadelphia ($46.5 million total), including $609,000 for a Defense Department display at a nearby naval base whose restricted access allowed just 310 people to view it. The $53 million taxpayer tab for the Democratic Convention in Los Angeles represents an incredible 93 percent of the total public/private cost. L.A.-area taxpayers were originally told they would pay nothing for event, but ultimately shelled out $36 million for everything from security to cab fares.

-- Second Half (General Election). Although George W. Bush declined Federal Matching Funds in the primaries, he did accept $67.6 million from taxpayers in the match-up with Al Gore (37 percent of the $184 million Bush raised from all sources). A whopping 62 percent of the $133 million Gore raised in the election season came from one donor organization -- the Federal Election Commission.

-- Sudden Death Overtime (Recount and Transition). Based on one Florida County Commissioner's estimate, the total taxpayer cost associated with the state's recount, not including courts, has approached $1 million. On the federal level, $7.1 million has been appropriated for the Presidential transition. However, neither candidate is allowed in the transition office, which is costing some $9,800 per day to sit unused. Key lawmakers have expressed support for reimbursing candidates for private funds spent on transition purposes, a move that would push taxpayer costs even higher.

McClusky pointed to other costs that will surface once the election is decided, or could surface long afterwards. The current Congress has already appropriated $6.9 million for Inauguration expenses, and bipartisan legislation slated for the next Congress that gives voting procedure reform grants to states, carries an annual price tag of $260 million.

Taxpayers are justifiably outraged over the subsidies they've been forced to pay for professional sports teams, McClusky concluded. There is no discernable reason why they should be paying the ticket price for professional politicians to win the White House either.