Campaign Contributions
The Campaign After The Campaign
I know you thought election season was over. But for the heavy-hitting campaign donors out there, it’s really just begun. It’s time for their most important campaign of all - to get their money’s worth. And woe to any politician that stands in their way.
November 12, 2008 | Read More
Out-Of-District Cash Floods Congress
Four out of every five bucks taken in for House campaigns come from people and corporations that do not live in, or have any connection to, members’ constituents - you know those unimportant people who send them to Washington in the first place? The ones they supposedly represent?
November 4, 2008 | Read More
Serving At His Pleasure
When he was running for office in 2006, Florida Democratic Representative Tim Mahoney promised to work for a “world that is safer, more moral.” Mahoney’s version of a more moral world apparently includes adultery and six-figure hush money.
October 13, 2008 | Read More
Alaskan King, Crabby
Alaska’s been in the news a lot lately thanks to Sarah Palin. But the “Pitbull with Lipstick” V.P. candidate has overshadowed another big Alaska story: the ongoing corruption trial of senate lifer Ted Stevens.
October 2, 2008 | Read More
A Regular Ol’ Joe
Joe Biden makes a lot of his hardscrabble roots. He’s the kid from Scranton, the son of a car salesman. But he’s also a six-term senator. Nobody in that “millionaire’s club” is hurting for money, and a story in today’s NY Times shows that Biden is no exception.
October 2, 2008 | Read More
Bailout - Follow the Money
Despite all the talk of putting country before party in recent days, a group called MAPlight.org [Money and Politics: Illuminating the Connection] has shown that legislators who voted yes on the House’s bailout bill on Monday received 54% more campaign contributions from banking and securities firms than those voting against it. Among Democrats, yes voters took in twice as much from the financial sector than those who voted no.
October 1, 2008 | Read More
Reason #91: Halliburton in the Halls of Government
A I’ve discussed, before he got to be our vice president, Dick Cheney was V.P. at Halliburton. He was also CEO of the company for a while. Under Cheney, Halliburton doubled its political contributions to the sum of $1.2 million. Most of that money went to Republican politicians. Not coincidentally, the U.S. government awarded Halliburton several contracts to rebuild oil infrastructure in Iraq, without allowing other companies to bid for the jobs, as the government normally does.
These days, Halliburton remains big in the business of campaign contributions, and 93 percent of this money goes to Republicans. (The Fluor Corporation is…
August 28, 2008 | Read More
Reason #36: Cornfed - Big Business’s ‘Socialist’ System
The former chairman of agriculture giant Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) once quipped that “the only place you see a free market is in the speeches of politicians … this is a socialist country.” We rarely get to hear our corporate or political leaders speak so candidly about the way our so-called capitalist system works these days.
Family farmers and small businesses in this country still have to play by the rules of the market. They try to make an honest profit on the crops they grow and the goods and services they sell. But for big business, the rules are different.…
August 26, 2008 | Read More
Reason #31: Enron - A Good Lay for Bush
No doubt about it, Brown and Root and LBJ forged an extremely beneficial relationship with each other. But more recently, another Texas company, the Enron Corporation, invested in another Texas politician, George W. Bush, and reaped the dividends when he made it to the White House.
Lay and his company donated almost $6 million to politicians on both sides of the aisle. That kind of cash buys a lot of loyalty, even from the grave.
Enron’s late founder Ken Lay and George W. Bush went way back. “Kenny Boy,” as W. called him, gave generously to Bush’s run for Texas governor. And…
August 26, 2008 | Read More
Reason #28: Hell Care - How Big Business is (Literally) Killing Us
Billy Tauzin’s work for drug makers while he was in Congress is not rare. Other than arms contractors, perhaps no other business buys off politicians quite like the medical industry.
The U.S. healthcare system is a disgrace. We spend up to 14 percent of our Gross Domestic Product on medical care, yet 45 million Americans have no health insurance. That’s almost 7 percent of the national population. Maybe 7 percent doesn’t sound like much to you, but think of it this way: Every year 18,000 people in the U.S. die because they do not have medical coverage. And yet, year in and year out,…
August 26, 2008 | Read More
