Government and Politics

Price Controls no Solution to Campaign Reform

Historically, price controls have caused more problems than they have solved. Applying them to political campaign financing -- as does the McCain-Feingold bill -- would be bad economics, bad politics and very bad public policy, says former Delaware governor Pete du Pont.

He points out that McCain-Feingold contains a vast array of price controls:

  • There are controls on campaign spending in the form of an overall spending limit.

  • Controls on private broadcasters in the form of advertising rate limits.

  • Controls on government prices in the form of postal rates.

  • And there are restrictions on the proportion of contributions coming from out-of-state donors.

He says the language of the bill illustrates just how mind-numbingly complex and complicated the price-control mechanism would be.

For example, the bill says the overall spending limit for Senate races "shall not exceed the lesser of $5,500,000, or the greater of $950,000 or $400,000 plus 30 cents multiplied by the voting age population not in excess of 4,000,000 and 25 cents multiplied by the voting age population in excess of 4,000,000." That is, unless the candidate runs in a state that has no more than one VHF TV transmitter licensed for operation, in which case 80 cents is substituted for 30, and 70 for 25.

Each candidate would be entitled to a total of 30 minutes free television time, to be used Monday through Friday between 6 and 10 p.m., in minimum bites of 30 seconds and a maximum of five minutes -- but no more than 15 minutes on any one station.

Du Pont points out substantial First Amendment problems, since the Supreme Court has ruled unanimously that political contributions are protected speech. Moreover, McCain-Feingold would permit the federal government to regulate campaign speech that contains "express advocacy" intended to affect an election. "But," du Pont states, "advocacy of issues is what elections are about."

He calls for the defeat of the McCain-Feingold bill and repeal of existing campaign spending rules.

Instead, he recommends requiring that every campaign contribution -- hard or soft, direct or indirect -- be reported to the Federal Election Commission electronically the day it arrives; then let voters decide on election day.

Source: Pete du Pont (editor, Intellectual-Capital.com), "Price Controls on Democracy," Wall Street Journal, September 24, 1997.

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