[EL] funds for Presidential Inaugural Committee

[J.H. Snider]

Doug,



Along these lines, you might be interested in my op-ed, Presidential Inaugural Pork<http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/the-administration/277217-presidential-inaugural-pork>, published last week in The Hill.  It focuses on the relatively small-time quid pro quo for receiving presidential inaugural tickets, especially swearing-in tickets.  I hope to have a follow-up piece published tomorrow.



The difference in my framing vs. yours is I'm focusing on the implications of public rather than private resources already being used to fund the inaugural, and the consequent question of the democratic legitimacy of how those public resources are allocated.



I'd agree that your framing addresses the bigger problem.   Today's print edition of the Washington Post has a particularly good front page story<http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/inauguration/for-top-donors-inauguration-means-access-influence-and-angling-for-next-big-job/2013/01/19/4082a184-60d7-11e2-a389-ee565c81c565_story.html> framed along those lines.  If inaugural events were fully publicly funded, the type of problem I highlight would come even more to the fore.  But through the use of bona fide lotteries, the problem might also be solved relatively easily.  This may partially address your query: "Why not fund this?"



--J.H. ("Jim") Snider
President of iSolon.org<http://isolon.net/> and Lab Fellow at Harvard University's Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics<http://www.ethics.harvard.edu/the-center/mission>.




-----Original Message-----
From: law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu [mailto:law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu] On Behalf Of Doug Hess
Sent: Sunday, January 20, 2013 3:19 PM
To: law-election at department-lists.uci.edu
Subject: [EL] funds for Presidential Inaugural Committee



Somewhat related to elections policy:



Is there a reason, political or policy-wise, that the Presidential

Inaugural events are not fully, or almost fully, funded by the public?



It strikes me as unseemly that a president has to pass the hat to

raise money for this, in addition to the usual concerns about possible

corruption and appearances of it. I don't mind raising funds from

memorabilia (although an PIC shot glass is a little tacky, albeit

all-American), but why not fund this? Both parties should be willing

to vote for a realistic budget that could be recommend by the planning

officials (which I think are largely career officials, police,

military, Secret Service, etc.)



Doug

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