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Obama says no to public financing
Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama
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TEXT OF STORY
Bob Moon: When anybody turns down $80 million, it's going to be news, but especially when it's a candidate for the highest office in the land.
Barack Obama announced today he won't accept any federal money for this year's presidential election. There's a strategy at play here: The move frees the Obama campaign to spend as much money as he can raise.
But as Marketplace's Steve Henn reports, the decision is drawing some fire.
Steve Henn: Barack Obama is the first presidential candidate since Watergate to turn down public money for a general election.
Activist David Arkush at Public Citizen feels betrayed.
David Arkush: It's not altogether surprising when someone is raising as much money as he is and breaking fundraising records that he would opt out of the public funding system, but it is very disappointing.
The McCain campaign accused Obama of breaking his word. But Obama said the public financing system is broken. He wants to be armed with enough money to fight what outside groups throw at him. His army of small donors have given him that ammunition.
Obama: We built a grassroots movement of over 1.5 million Americans. We won the Democratic nomination by relying on ordinary people...
If Obama accepted federal funds, he'd have to limit his spending to just over $84 million this fall and stop collecting private contributions. But Obama's already raised more than three times that amount.
David Arkush says lots of that money has come from wealthy insiders.
Arkush: He's raised over $90 million from people who gave over $1,000 or more.
According to the Center for Responsive Politics, 55 percent of Obama's cash comes from so-called big donors, folks who have given at least $200.
Julie Presley is one of them.
Julie Presley: No, I don't feel like a big donor. If you knew what my salary was, you would... I don't make a lot of money.
Presley, a social worker, has never given more than $25 dollars at a time, but she's given again and again and somehow, she doubts, if elected, that Obama would offer her any special favors.
In Washington, I'm Steve Henn for Marketplace.
<b>No More Lobbyist!!!!!!</b>
Senator Obama has said many times, <b> "Lobbyist will not run my White House." </b>
Getting rid of the extremely negative impact of lobbyist is one of the major reasons I support Senator Obama.
<b>McCain has flip-flopped </b> on many things. Yesterday he told the citizens of Missouri about a gas tax holiday he knows Congress will never approve.
Prior to McCain's event in Missouri yesterday, Democratic U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill of Missouri said in a conference call that McCain's plan would <b>cost the state 6,000 jobs and $167 million </b>in federal gas tax dollars for Missouri's roadways.
"The people of Missouri can <b>smell a phony deal </b>a mile away," </b> she said. <b>"Frankly, that’s what John McCain’s gas tax is. He knew it wasn’t going to have any meaningful impact </b> on people’s real pain – our dependence on foreign oil."
McCaskill said it was <b>"a promise he knew he would never have to deliver on." </b>
The <b>"Could McCain Have Come Up with a More Ill-Suited Economic Advisor Than Phil Gramm?" </b> is one of many examples for the damage caused by lobbyist specifically gas prices and the subprime housing damage.
http://www.alternet.org/election08/87999/?cID=936047#c936047
