Karl Balliet dishes up some criticism for the Center for Competitive Politics in this letter in the Roanoke Times. The Center recently ran a letter in the paper critical of public financing and Balliet points out some omissions and obfuscations in their argument.

Balliet cites reports that the Center ignored, including investigative reports from journalist Bill Moyers and the program 60 Minutes drawing links between campaign cash and legislation. He concludes that while public financing programs may cost money, they're a bargain compared to the costs of our current system:

This amounts to a system of legalized bribery and should be changed. The opponents of government financing for elections try to make an issue of how much it would cost the taxpayers. They do not talk about how much it costs those same taxpayers to pay the higher prices charged by the corporations who have received legislative benefits. These costs are far higher than the cost of government financing.