What Clinton and Dole could learn from the Teamsters - payroll deduction plan to reform political party finance

Washington Monthly, May, 1993 by Brooks Jackson

The buck-a-week plan would, of course, face some minor obstacles. "You would have very, very strong institutional resistance within the IRS," predicts former IRS Commissioner Fred Goldberg. Adding more lines to tax withholding forms clutters them and costs money, he says. But "mechanically, it can be done." Organized labor might squirm at the idea of sharing the payroll mechanism--a political golden goose if there ever was one--with parties. Business groups would object reflexively to another federal mandate and small businesses in particular would seek an exemption, claiming paperwork headaches. A few liberals still equate the notion of strong parties with Tammany Hall corruption. Lawmakers of both parties may secretly want to keep parties weak, allowing themselves more freedom to maneuver. Careful drafting would be needed to deny the benefit of the payroll plan to kooky fringe groups trying to claim political party status while still recognizing the legitimate claims of bona fide minor parties, such as New York's Liberal and Conservative parties.

Such objections, however, pale when set against the major attractions. There could be lots more money for both parties. Stronger parties mean relatively weaker special interests. Perverse incentives would be reversed, and parties would find it profitable to behave more like public interest groups. Candidates could shift the humiliating and time-consuming task of fundraising to party professionals. Better candidates would run for Congress if the parties provided enough money, and they would stand a better chance of winning. In fact, the buck-a-week plan would be worth trying even if no other reforms are enacted.

Would it work? There are no guarantees. (Perhaps parties have nothing worth a buck a week to offer voters.) But Bob Beckel, a Democratic bigwig and former Mondale campaign manager, says that he, for one, is ready to give it a go: "Maybe we have to say this soft-money thing is so bad and so insidious, we just have to roll the dice ."

So, Bill Clinton, Bob Dole, anyone out there: Steal my idea. Why not? I stole it from the Teamsters myself.