If ever there was a reason to consider publicly financed elections, consider this. The US Farm Bill contains the Food Aid Program, a post-war program designed to do two things: To use the food the Government was buying to prop up food prices and to propagandize the largesse of the U. S. That was fine but now the Government isn't buying excess commodities yet the program continues as before. Consider these inefficiencies:
Even though sending cash might be cheaper, Food Aid relief efforts have to buy U. S. farm commodities, ship them to the country where the aid is to be given, sell them, then use the cash for development or emergency aid. This even though food may be cheaper locally and little to no shipping is involved.
75% of all food aid must be shipped on U. S. flagged ships - how many of those are there - and 25% must be bagged and shipped from a Great Lakes port.
Farmers, shippers and aid workers support the effort. The Chairman of the US Dried Pea and Lentil Council - were you aware we had a US Dried Pea and Lentil council - warned lawmakers tampering could weaken political support. I don't know if this is enough to influence lawmakers but I do know I don't want some dried bean magnate influencing my congress-critters to keep an inefficient program going by threatening to withdraw support.
If ever there was an argument for publicly funded elections, a bean magnate influencing our congress-critters to keep an outdated, inefficient program as-is to protect their interests should be one. They keep the inefficiencies going and your opinion isn't worth a hill of beans: The culture of corruption in Washington will continue until we, again, own our representatives.
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