Questions and Answers

Here are some answers to recent questions that have come up in class:

1. Milkis and Nelson are not quite accurate when they speak of "a signficiant reduction in domestic spending" under Reagan (p. 370). In constant FY2000 dollars, there was a drop in nondefense discretionary spending, from $282.1 billion in FY81 to $255.3 billion in FY89. But more than offsetting this change were large increases in other areas of domestic spending:

...............................FY81......FY89
Social Security.......$246b....$300b
Means-Tested
Entitlements (for
the needy)..............$93b.......$111b

2. Here is the formula for the Major Party Index (MPI): ((Most recent 2-Party Republican Presidential Vote)*0.25) + ((Average of the Two Most Recent Republican 2-Party Votes for the U.S. Senate)*0.125) + ((Republican 2- Party Percent of all U.S. House Votes)*0.125) + ((Most Recent 2-Party Republican Vote for Governor)*0.25) + ((2-Party Republican Percentage of Seats in the State Senate)*0.125) + ((2-Party Republican Percentage of Seats in the State House)*0.125). More detail here.

3. In 1976, the first year for which we have FEC data, all presidential candidates in both parties raised a total of $171 million in the primary and general election campaigns. That amount equals $647 million in 2008 dollars (CPI). The latest figures show that Barack Obama raised $656 million in 2008. In other words, he raised more money than all of the 1976 candidates put together.

Schumer and Specter Push for Overturn of Buckley v. Valeo

As I was sifting through the news from this week, I found this article on the website of the New York Times. The article reports on the efforts of Senators Schumer and Specter to challenge the Supreme Court's ruling in Buckley v. Valeo (1976). In Buckley v. Valeo, the Court ruled that giving money to influence elections is a constitutionally protected form of free speech. Additionally, the case effectively banned restrictions on candidates giving to their own campaigns, allowing candidates like Ross Perot and Steve Forbes to fund their own bids for the presidency. To digress, ABC News reported this week that Mitt Romney has surpassed Steve Forbes in donations to his own campaign; in class, we witnessed the effects of this money when we saw the video of the Ron Paul supporter criticizing Romney's excessive use of buses in the Iowa straw poll. Schumer and Specter have joined the opposition to current campaign finance laws which, they argue, allow for large donors to drown out the political voices of "average" Americans. The effort to challenge Buckley v. Valeo, however, seems to be ill fated given that a similar attempt failed in the Senate in 2001. We find ourselves, however, in another election year in which the frontrunners for party nominations have all declined federal funds. Perhaps this time around, Schumer and Specter will find a more responsive public.