Tax Time: Don’t Check that Box
There was a time when I used to believe it was my patriotic duty to check that box on my tax return that gave a dollar, then two, to the presidential election fund to provide matching funds. I can’t remember when I stopped doing this, but basically it came from the realization that no candidate that I ever supported garnered enough votes to actually qualify for matching funds. These fund are spent, in fact, funding the final slugfest between two candidates that I either dislike or absolutely hate. Of course, George Bush changed the rules somewhat by not taking the matching funds, but that doesn’t really change the way I feel about this. Most significantly, this money is divied up based money raised (these are matching funds after all), so in effect, my $2 is mostly going to fund the person who raised the most money in the first place (or all those that reach the maximum match if that’s the case). This seems completely backwards and I can’t see one single benefit that has come from this system except to generate extra employment in the ad biz and I’m not particularly in favor of that either. Additionally, these matching funds come into play late in the election cycle when politicians know that they will meet the threshold for matching and therefore can start spending that money. Unfortunately, by the time we reach that point, the candidate that I actually like, who is not the lesser of two evils, is usually out of the race for all practical purposes. So now I make small donations early in election cycle when it’s not down to the lesser of two evils and I do NOT check that stupid box.
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