During August, the Republican Party will hold its National Convention in Tampa, Florida and later that month the Democrats will hold the same in Charlotte, North Carolina. Each of the two parties receives over $18 million this year in public funds to help cover the cost of their conventions.

The money they receive comes from the box that is checked on federal tax returns for $3. However, this may be the last year that national party conventions get funding from taxpayers.

The Senate just recently passed a bipartisan measure that cuts off all taxpayer funding for national conventions after 2012. The new legislation if part of the huge farm bill that was just passed by the Senate. The ban on public funding was co-sponsored by Senator Tom Coburn a Republican from Oklahoma.

Coburn said money was being borrowed from China to fund huge parties in Charlotte and Tampa this summer with each one receiving over $18 million. He thought that the measure he sponsored would be defeated, but it won 95-4. Only four voted against the legislation and one of them was Mary Landrieu a Democrat from Louisiana. She said the money was needed otherwise the only money at the conventions would be from big business and that could cause problems the country does not need.

Nevertheless, huge sums of money from corporations are already spent on the two conventions. With all the cash flowing through the political campaign system today, the convention is just one item on the list and is minor at that, said John McCain the Republican Senator from Arizona.