public funding

Examples of public funding in the following topics:

• Regulating Campaign Finance

  • At the federal level, public funding is limited to subsidies for presidential campaigns.
  • Republican Tom Tancredo and Democrats Chris Dodd, Joe Biden and John Edwards elected to take public financing.
  • In addition to primary matching funds, the public funding program also assists with financing the major parties' (and eligible minor parties') presidential nominating conventions and funding the major party (and eligible minor party) nominees' general election campaigns.
  • In 2012, each major party is entitled to $18.2 million in public funds for their conventions, and the parties' general election nominees are eligible to receive $91.2 million in public funds.
  • If candidates accept public funds, they agree not to raise or spend private funds or to spend more than $50,000 of their personal resources.

• Campaign Finance Reform

  • In 1974, fueled by public reaction to the Watergate Scandal, Congress passed amendments to the Act establishing a comprehensive system of regulation and enforcement, including public financing of presidential campaigns and creation of a central enforcement agency, the Federal Election Commission.
  • Another method allows the candidates to raise funds from private donors, but provides matching funds for the first chunk of donations.
  • The candidates are not allowed to accept outside donations or to use their own personal money if they receive this public funding.
  • Candidates receive matching funds, up to a limit, when they are outspent by privately-funded candidates, attacked by independent expenditures, or their opponent benefits from independent expenditures.
  • This is the primary difference between clean money public financing systems and the presidential campaign system, which many have called "broken" because it provides no extra funds when candidates are attacked by 527s or other independent expenditure groups.

• Education Policy

  • Government supported, free public schools were established after the revolution, and expanded in the 19th century.
  • Education in the United States is mainly provided by the public sector, with control and funding coming from three levels: local, state, and federal, in that order.
  • Public education is universally available.
  • The poor performance has pushed public and private efforts such as the No Child Left Behind Act.
  • The reliance on local funding sources has led to a long history of court challenges about how states fund their schools.

• The Function of Interest Groups

  • Lobby groups work for a change to the law or the maintenance of a particular law and big businesses fund very considerable lobbying influence on legislators, for example in the U.S. and in the U.K. where lobbying first developed.
  • Legal defense funds provide funding for the legal defense for, or legal action against, individuals or groups related to their specific interests or target demographic.
  • This is often accompanied by one of the above types of advocacy groups filing Amicus curiae if the cause at stake serves the interests of both the legal defense fund and the other advocacy groups.
  • In cases such as public libraries, advocacy groups have been critical in lobbying for continued funding across the nation.

• Sources of Campaign Funding

  • Different sources of campaign funding help party candidates to raise funds through multiple avenues.
  • Different sources of campaign funding enable party candidates raise funds through multiple avenues.
  • Although most campaign spending is privately financed, public financing is also available for qualifying candidates for President of the United States during both the primaries and the general election.
  • It is a highly controversial phenomenon, often seen in a negative light by journalists and the American public, and frequently misunderstood.
  • Political party committees may contribute funds directly to candidates, subject to the specified contribution limits.

• Universal Coverage

  • Other countries have a much more pluralistic delivery system of obligatory health insurance, with contributory rates based on salaries or income and usually funded jointly by employers and beneficiaries .
  • Sometimes the healthcare funds are derived from a combination of insurance premiums, salary-based mandatory contributions by employees and/or employers to regulated sickness funds, and by government taxes.
  • According to economist and former US Secretary of Labor, Robert Reich, only a "big, national, public option" can force insurance companies to cooperate, share information, and reduce costs.
  • The term "single-payer healthcare" is used in the United States to describe a funding mechanism meeting the costs of medical care from a single fund.
  • Although the fund holder is usually the government, some forms of single-payer employ a public-private system.

• The International Monetary Structure

  • The main components in the international monetary structure are global institutions (such as the International Monetary Fund and Bank for International Settlements), national agencies and government departments (such as central banks and finance ministries), private institutions acting on the global scale (such as banks and hedge funds), and regional institutions (like the Eurozone or NAFTA).
  • The most prominent international institutions are the International Monetary Fund (IMF) , the World Bank, and the World Trade Organization (WTO).
  • Membership is based on the amount of money a country provides to the fund relative to the size of its role in the international trading system.
  • The World Bank aims to provide funding, takes up credit risk, or offers favorable terms to developing countries for development projects that couldn't be obtained by the private sector.
  • This includes commercial banks, hedge funds and private equity, pension funds, insurance companies, mutual funds, and sovereign wealth funds.

• Governmental Interest Groups

  • In many cases local governments are seeking more funding to carry out their work and responsibilities.
  • As with other interest groups many government interest groups also conduct work in public education and media campaigns in addition to their direct advocacy work.
  • The practice of local governments lobbying the federal government started with the New Deal during which an attempt was made to organize the distribution of funds and programs during that period.
  • Major gains were made in the 1960s and 1970s, especially around social program funding.
  • FERA was part of the New Deal federal funding to state and local governments.

• Interest Groups vs. Political Parties

  • These donations are the traditional source of funding for all right-of-center cadre parties.
  • In the UK, the conservative party's campaigns are often funded by large corporations, as many of the conservative party's campaigns reflect the interests of businesses.
  • In contrast to the conservative right, left-wing parties are often funded by organized labor.
  • When the Labor Party was first formed, it was largely funded by trade unions.
  • Bush's re-election campaign in 2004 was largely funded by special interest groups such as financial banks and large industrial corporations.

• The Budgeting Process

  • Congress which recommends funding levels for the next fiscal year, beginning October 1.
  • Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid expenditures are funded by more permanent Congressional appropriations and so are considered mandatory spending.
  • Non-defense discretionary spending is used to fund the executive departments (e.g., the Department of Education) and independent agencies (e.g., the Environmental Protection Agency), although these do receive a smaller amount of mandatory funding as well.
  • The United States public debt is the money borrowed by the federal government of the United States through the issuing of securities by the Treasury and other federal government agencies.
  • US public debt consists of two components: Debt held by the public includes Treasury securities held by investors outside the federal government, including that held by individuals, corporations, the Federal Reserve System and foreign, state and local governments.