Democrats Plan to Advance Legislation Forcing Taxpayers to Fund Political Campaigns

WASHINGTON - Today, the Committee on House Administration's Ranking Republican Dan Lungren, R-Calif., issued the following statement on today's announcement by House Democrats to markup legislation (H.R. 6116) that would force American taxpayers to subsidize congressional campaigns at an estimated annual cost of $1.5 billion:

"At a time when Americans are increasingly feeling the burden of the second-worst recession in history, out-of-touch House Democrats announce plans to advance legislation that would force American taxpayers to spend over one billion dollars annually to fund political campaigns.

"Instead of working to create jobs and lower taxes, they are focused on ways to save their jobs at the expense of American taxpayers. What's worse is that they do it under the false pretext of fairness. What is fair about the Fair Elections Now Act? Forcing Americans to pay for the campaigns of politicians and candidates they oppose?

"Congress should be concerned with getting millions of American back to work, not on finding ways to make taxpayers finance political campaigns."

For more information, please contact the Committee press office at (202) 225-8281.

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