With debts exceeding revenue by $2.2million, it’s unlikely that the Democrat Party will be able to stage a convention absent a taxpayer bailout.

It’s probably the biggest case of “Too Big To Fail” since the bank bailout of 2008. The Democrats are a couple million in the hole, and have no immediate plans for finding the money outside the US taxpayers. From the Washington Times:

Already struggling with finances, the Democratic Party has drafted a plan to have taxpayers help pay about $20 million for next summer’s nominating convention, reversing a change Congress approved just a year ago.

Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who is also a congresswoman from Florida, has drafted a bill to restore money that both parties used to receive from the federal government to help defray the costs of running their quadrennial conventions.

Apparently, in a unprecedented fit of sanity last year, Congress voted to stop public funding of conventions. They assumed the $2 billion dollars candidates are expected to raise, should more than cover their balloon drops.

This is a great opportunity for the Republicans to show their strength in the Legislature, and prove that they are the party of fiscal responsibility. It would also give them at a great political advantage if the Democrats couldn’t scrape up the money to reserve the hall for their party. In other words, they’ll probably give in, and vote to fund the conventions.

Because no matter how minuscule it seems, it’s still $40 million dollars. (I daresay, it’s likely more than the entire net worth of my facebook friends.) And in an Era when the Federal Government is putting over a billion dollars a day on their credit card, every million counts.

It’s just wrong. It’s not even like those conventions are necessary, as most candidates are chosen long before the delegates arrive. With only one Democrat standing a chance of winning, the convention will be little more than a coronation.

Political Parties are private organizations, there is no reason for them to be funded out of public coffers. It’s also unfair to the half dozen or so third parties, that are relegated to staging their nominating conventions in the banquet hall of a Best Western. Federal funding of conventions gives the appearance of legitimacy to the Big Two, that shouldn’t really exist in a Representative Republic.

As the Wasserman-Shultz bill makes its way though Congress, be prepared to hear Congressmen and Pundits say it’s just a little bit of money, just a small percentage of the Federal Budget. And they’ll likely vote to pass it, because no one can pass up $20 million dollars; even me. There are only a few things I wouldn’t do for that kind of loot.

It’s the same reason why people steal from stores. Shoplifters figure the Corporation they’re stealing from, won’t miss the candy bar as much as the shoplifter wants it, so it makes the crime acceptable.

Bring on the Balloons!