President Obama has been taking a lot of heat for his taxpayer funded bus tour which, despite assurances from the White House that the tour is “official business,” many critics and media outlets believe is meant as a campaign tour of battleground states. This piece from the Chicago Tribune, however, is a reminder that this kind of public financing of campaign-related events is nothing new:
But no mention was made by Republican National Chairman Reince Priebus or Illinois GOP Chairman Pat Brady that a re-election seeking President George W. Bush used a bs from the same manufacturer, Quebec-based Prevost, for a Spring 2004 “Yes, America Can” campaign tour through the midwest.
Obama ends a three-day Midwest bus tour today, traveling aboard one of two $1.1 million Prevost buses purchases by the Secret Service. Previously, the Secret Service said, it leased buses and fitted then with security and communications gear, then stripped them of the equipment afterward. Bush’s 2004 opponent, Democratic Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., also campaigned in a bus from the same firm.
The fuss being raised over President Obama’s use of taxpayer funds for what appear to be campaign purposes serves as a reminder that the voting public instinctively recognizes political campaigning as an improper use of taxpayer money. Which of course raises the question — why do we continue to provide tax dollars directly to presidential candidates through the Presidential Public Funding Program? Only seven percent of taxpayers bother to designate a miniscule portion of their taxes to the program, a percentage that has been steadily declining since the program’s beginning.
It’s time for this boondoggle, which has cost nearly $1.5 billion over the years, to end.
