Bloomberg:
U.S. House Votes to End Watergate-Era Finance System
Jan. 26 (Bloomberg) -- The Republican-controlled U.S. House voted to eliminate public financing of presidential campaigns almost four decades after the Watergate scandal that led to its adoption.
Today’s 239-160 vote was primarily along party lines. Republicans said the U.S. can’t afford the program in an era of trillion-dollar budget deficits. The legislation would save $617 million over 10 years, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.
There's no question the system is broken, but voting to scrap it altogether without developing an alternative is misguided. $617 million is less than a rounding error when it comes to the budget, but I'd submit that if the GOP were really interested in cleaning up government, spending more on public financing -- including extending it to Congressional elections -- would actually save money for a simple reason: it would reduce the power of lobbyists to extract special deals, loopholes, and other giveaways in exchange for campaign cash. So while there's not necessarily anything to weep about if the current, broken system goes away, instead of ditching it, we should fix it.