I have heard so much from our President about the major contributions to political campaigns that facilitate the influence of lobbyists who use the influence of the major contributions. After all, the process begins with special interest groups and their contributions to presidential and congressional elections. I was intrigued by this insidious practice and decided I would look into it. It is interesting to look at the influence of campaign contributions of the special interest groups and their impact on the policies of the United States government. Obama makes a good point that these sources of power have undue influence on the decisions made in Washington. I agree with his premise. It is not fair to those who do not have any influence. Who are these contributors? Obama would have you believe that it is the major corporations and the rich. Is he correct? Not really!
Since this influence is so pervasive, you should know who has the influence. In the 2008 election cycle, ActBlue was at the top of the list, giving $24 Million to the Democrats. The Service Employees International Union provided nearly $17 Million for Obama’s campaign. Goldman Sachs gave $7 Billion to the Democrats. You may recall that Goldman was made whole on its money invested in AIG when AIG was bailed out by the federal government. Looks like they gave money to the right people. Just another example of the phrase that if the government can’t help its friends, who can it help. ATT gave $5.8 Million split between the Democrats and the Republicans. In fact, you have to go down to the 27th largest contributor to find one that gave largely to the Republicans. After that, however, the largest contributors go back to supporting Democrats. Perhaps the 2008 contributions was an anomaly. Not really!
Well in 2010, The Service Employees Union came in as the top contributor, providing the Democrats $9 Million. The second, sixth, eighth, and nineteenth largest contributors gave heavily to the Republicans. All the others down into the 20 largest contributors supported the Democrats. Well, apparently 2008 was no anomaly after all.
How about looking at contributions over the last 20 years? Will it be different? Not really. The list is too long to go into here but consider the fact that the largest contributors are Unions: ActBlue: $51 Million to Democrats, ATT: $46 Million split between the parties, American Federation of State, County & Municipal Employees: $45 Million to Democrats, National Association of Realtors: $39 Million split between the parties, Goldman Sachs: $33 Million to the Democrats, National Education Association: $32 Million to the Democrats, American Association of Justice: $33 Million to Democrats, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers: $32 Million to the Democrats, Laborers Association: $29 Million to the Democrats, American Federation of Teachers: $31 Million to the Democrats, Teamster Union: $30 Million to the Democrats. The list goes on. In fact, you need to go to the 18th and 20th largest contributors to find some that lean toward the Republicans.
Well the President’s premise was correct. It certainly seems easier to understand why the Obama Administration leans so dramatically in favor of the labor unions. Those who make the big contributions do have undue influence on the decisions in Washington. His inference that the influential were the corporations and the rich, however, seems wrong.
The influence of money in campaigns does not only benefit the Unions. When ObamaCare was debated, there was no consideration of limiting the influence of the legal profession in health care. Why not? Lawyers don’t bring big benefits to the health care system.. It has been estimated that billions of dollars are spent annually for defensive medicine. This involves doctors prescribing unnecessary medical procedures and medicines to attempt to avoid potential malpractice actions later. Whose ox gets gored if there is tort reform? Well, it’s the trial lawyers. Their association used to be called the American Trial Lawyers Association. I guess trial lawyers are not all that popular today so they changed their name to the American Association of Justice. Sounds better, doesn’t it? You can see above they contributed $33 Million over the last 20 years. They are among the very largest contributors to the Democratic Party.
It is very difficult to reduce the influence of campaign contributions and lobbying on the business of the public. At least we can put to rest the oft stated “conclusion” that major corporations and the rich have undue influence. Perhaps, we should be even a bit concerned that they have so little influence.
www.WeThePeopleBlog.net
comments@wethepeopleblog.net
