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[Page S756]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
H.R. 1
Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, on an entirely different matter, I
spoke for the first time, yesterday, on the subject that House
Democrats have crowned as their signature effort for this Congress--
H.R. 1, also known as the ``Democratic Politician Protection Act.''
Speaker Pelosi and her colleagues are advertising it as a package of
urgent measures to save American democracy. What it really seems to be
is a package of urgent measures to rewrite the rules of American
politics for the exclusive benefit of the Democratic Party.
Yesterday, I gave a brief tour through several of the most bizarre
components of their proposal. Today, I would like to focus on just one
of the legislation's major victims--the American taxpayer.
H.R. 1 would victimize every American taxpayer by pouring their money
into expensive new subsidies that don't even pass the laugh test. In
several new ways, it would put every taxpayer on the hook to line the
pockets of candidates, campaigns, and outside consultants.
Do you look forward to bumper stickers, robocalls, attack ads, and
campaign mail that descend on the country in seemingly endless cycles?
Speaker Pelosi must think you do, because she wants you to pay for
these things with your tax dollars. You get the opportunity, with your
money, to pay for attack ads and bumper stickers and the rest. This
bill creates brand-new government subsidies--government subsidies--both
for political campaign donors and for the campaigns themselves.
The Federal Government would start matching political donations the
same way some employers match gifts to charity. You would be literally
funding attack ads for the candidates you disagree with. How about
that--your money funding ads for the candidates you disagree with?
Maybe that is why every Democrat opposed our tax cuts for middle-
class families and small businesses. They were counting on that money
to pull off this stimulus package, if you will, for campaign
consultants.
And for what reason? To increase the competition? Well, studies have
shown that incumbents win just as often in taxpayer-funded elections as
they do when campaigns are funded with private money.
To reduce corruption? Hardly. Jurisdictions that have toyed with
taxpayer-funded political systems have turned out to be replete with
misappropriation, personal use, straw donors, and public corruption
scandals.
So I remain curious why, exactly, the ``Democratic Politician
Protection Act'' wants to offer the American people's money to
thousands of candidates that run for the House of Representatives every
2 years, whether they support these candidates or not. They want
citizens to bankroll political materials that they totally disagree
with.
But they aren't stopping there. Democrats also want taxpayers on the
hook for generous new benefits for Federal bureaucrats and government
employees.
Their bill would make election day a new paid holiday for government
workers and create an additional brandnew paid leave benefit for up to
6 days for any Federal bureaucrat who decides they would like to hang
out at the polls during any election. Just what America needs--another
paid holiday and a bunch of government workers being paid to go out and
work, I assume, for our colleagues on the other side on their
campaigns.
This is the Democrats' plan to ``restore'' democracy--a brandnew week
of paid vacation for every Federal employee who would like to hover
around while you cast your ballot? A Washington-based, taxpayer-
subsidized clearinghouse for political campaign funding? It is a power
grab that is smelling more and more like exactly what it is.
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