Political Quotes

“Mr. President, today I will reintroduce a bill to repair and strengthen the presidential public financing system. The Presidential Funding Act of 2010 will ensure that this system will continue to fulfill its promise in the 21st century. The bill will take effect in January 2011, so it will first apply in the 2012 presidential election. It is important to note that the cost of this bill is completely offset by reforms to the federal irrigation subsidy program. Friends of the Earth in its 2003 Green Scissors report estimated that these provisions would save at least $4.4 billion over 10 years, which is more than sufficient to cover the estimated cost of this bill--$1.1 billion over 4 years. The presidential public financing system was put into place in the wake of the Watergate scandals as part of the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1974. It was held to be constitutional by the Supreme Court in Buckley v. Valeo. The system, of course, is voluntary, as the Supreme Court required in Buckley. Until the 2008 election, every major party nominee for President since 1976 had participated in the system for the general election and, prior to 2000, every major party nominee had participated in the system for the primary election as well. In the 2004 election, President Bush and two Democratic candidates, Howard Dean and the eventual nominee, John Kerry, opted out of the system for the presidential primaries.…”