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Final
tally: Presidential race
costs Americans $350 million
By
Mike Fak
[FEB.
14, 2001] Well,
Logan County, we have a new president of the United States working
away in Washington. After a war of words, miscounted ballots and
political posturing all the way to the Supreme Court, the nation has
shown it somehow gets out of all the self-made crises we seem to
place ourselves in. I can live with Mr. Bush as our president; I
could have lived with Mr. Gore taking the oath of office. Rarely
have I found my life being affected very much by which president is
in office, save the one instance when President Nixon sent me a
greetings letter that told me I was drafted into the U.S. Army. What
I do find affecting me and all of us is the continuous escalation of
costs incurred in the electing of a president that we are paying.
Let me explain.
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According
to the Federal Election Commission, the past presidential election
carried a price tag of $350 million dollars. Republican candidate
George Bush raised $192 million, Democrat Al Gore $132 million. Even
no-chance-of-winning Pat Buchanan collected $30 million dollars to
spend on political ads. The amounts, of course, are mind-numbing and
should tell all Americans that the system needs to be rethought,
reworked and redone.
Where
did this fortune in funds derive from? The funds came from us. Al Gore
received $83 million of his political plate from federal funds. Bush
received $67 million. Federal funds, of course, means tax dollars, and
so it is apparent that all of us paid a little to fund this
presidential slugfest through our taxes
Unfortunately that is only
the tip of the presidential iceberg. The list provided by the Federal
Election Commission shows organization after organization giving
millions of dollars to attempt to place their choice for president in
the White House. Corporate
America poured $100 million into the various races across America,
including the race for chief executive. This figure is on top of the
standard lobbying fees to government leaders, which also has gone over
the $100 million mark for the past year. Corporate giants such as
AT&T at $4.6 million and Microsoft at $4.3 million covered their
bases well by giving heavily to both Republican and Democratic
presidential funds.
Where does this money come from? It comes from us,
of course. Don’t for a minute pretend that corporate America decides
to lower their profits by giving to political machines. Corporate
America simply decides how much they plan to spend on candidates and
adds those costs to the price of their products or services. So you
see, every item we buy has a little bit set aside for the next Bush or
Gore or whoever that business decides to throw money at. Isn't it bad
enough that every product we buy has added costs to cover
half-million-dollar-a-minute Super Bowl ads? Now, every time we make a
purchase, we are paying to support candidates whom we personally may
not truly believe are the best candidates.
[to top of second
column in this commentary]
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Many
of the donors’ contributions were weighted heavily to the party they
felt would best protect their interests. Phillip Morris gave $3
million to Bush, since Republicans seem to have a kinder, gentler look
at the tobacco industry. Oil and gas also turned over 6 million to
Bush, who favors oil exploration in areas the Clinton administration
had made off- limits for ecology’s sake. The NRA placed $2.8 million
with Bush, since the Republicans are softer on gun control than the
Democrats.
The
Democrats, of course, had their own champions of excessive largess.
In fact the largest single contributor to the presidential race ended
up being the American Federation of State, County and Municipal
Employees,
at $7 million dollars, 98 percent of which was directed Al Gore’s
way. Unions were conspicuous by their donations to the Democrats, to
the point that eight of the top 20 presidential race donors were made
up of national workers unions, and almost all their monies were
directed to Gore and his compatriots.
Although not a member of a union
at this time, I find it hard to believe such huge sums coming out of
union dues is in the best interests of the common worker. I also have
to ask, since unions gave telling sums to Gore, can they possibly
believe that Bush will now bend an ear to them and their travails?
Judging human nature, I believe unions just threw a great deal of
potential employee pension money down the presidential drain. Have
they not by their expenditures actually alienated our new commander in
chief?
There
is nothing wrong with financially supporting politicians whom you
believe will defend or support your ideals. The sums involved and the
fact that all these costs are being borne on the backs of American
wage earners is the problem that we now face.
A
retooling of the
whole system is required before we can honestly say that campaign
finance reform is more than just rhetoric. I, for one, have listened to
enough rhetoric. I, for one, have said, enough is enough. It’s
starting to cost me too much money.
[Mike Fak]
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