Taxpayers Should Stop Paying For The Conventions

Radley Balko argues that taxpayers should not have to pay for political conventions. Quote:

After four years of spending taxpayer dollars at rates unseen in U.S. history, after failing to carry out the single most important responsibility of government — to protect American citizens from those who want to harm us — America's two major political organizations now get to throw themselves grand galas, where party leaders bloviate on national television about the earnest, hard-working taxpayer, then party in corporate suites where they nosh on the likes of "maple bourbon glazed turkey and roasted duck, and Forest Glen chardonnay."

And you and I pay for it.

U.S. taxpayers give the Democrats and Republicans $15 million each to host their respective conventions. Taxpayers in host cities and host states pay even more. Those checks to the parties have always been justified under the premise that we're paying for the privilege of democracy; conventions, after all, are where we select the major parties' candidates for the White House.