Hartzler votes to end campaign finance checkoff

Fourth District Congresswoman Vicky Hartzler was one of 239 representatives who voted today to eliminate the campaign finance checkoff system which has allowed taxpayers to contribute $3 to be used for public financing for presidential candidates. From the news release:

Congresswoman Vicky Hartzler (MO-4) has said “no” to continued taxpayer funding of presidential election campaigns by voting to eliminate the Presidential Election Campaign Fund – a move which also terminates public financing of political party conventions. The bill would bring an end to the diversion of much needed revenues from vital federal programs. Taxpayers could continue to spend their own dollars on political campaigns and conventions, but government would no longer be in the business of funding them. The legislation would reduce direct spending by $617 million over the next decade.


“My Republican colleagues and I are once again putting our words into action on behalf of the American people,” said Hartzler. “Through Majority Leader Eric Cantor’s YouCut program, in which the people told us what they wanted to see cut, we are eliminating programs and expenditures the people of this country do not think should be supported by taxpayer dollars. With the federal budget running unprecedented deficits the American taxpayer should not be subsidizing political campaigns. Saddling our children and grandchildren with additional debt for partisan political campaigns and conventions is simply wrong. We can and must find better uses for that money.”

The amount of funding for the public financing system is determined by checkoffs on income tax returns. Taxpayer participation has declined from 28.7 percent in 1980 to 7.3 percent in 2009. Eliminating the program would require candidates and political parties to rely on private donations rather than tax dollars.