On Thursday, Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) told a group of constituents, “I would say we have an absurd tax code that has so many ridiculous features that are there because special interests have carved them out. I’m all in favor of reforming it so we can get rid of those kinds of features.”

Sen. Toomey is a member of the Congressional “supercommittee” that was created to find $1.2 trillion in deficit reduction and he just provided the perfect example of why these committee members need to stop fundraising as they hammer out their deficit reduction plan. The same “special interests” that have their tax breaks and loopholes will be doing all they can to keep them and that includes handing over campaign cash.

Sen. Toomey won’t face re-election until 2016. He already has more than $500,000 in his campaign bank account. He could easily give up fundraising for a few months—and his 11 colleagues on the committee could to. That way these “special interests” Toomey is concerned about won’t have outsized influence as the committee works to find a balanced approach to deficit reduction.