Wednesday, May 5, 2010
Top Recipient of Political Cash from BP, Goldman Sachs, Defense Contractors AND Healthcare Giants: Barack Obama
Preface: The story that Obama was the top recipient of political contributions from BP is going viral today. I thought I’d put the story in a little context.
As a side note, I voted for Obama and had high hopes for him … until he appointed Summers, Geithner, various Bush re-treads and industry shills, and then showed that he would play footsie with the big boys instead of the American people.
Politico reports:
BP and its employees have given more than $3.5 million to federal candidates over the past 20 years, with the largest chunk of their money going to Obama, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
Obama apparently also got more contributions from Exxon and Chevron than McCain.
And Obama had the most political contributions from Goldman Sachs in 2008 of all senators. And Goldman gave more to Obama than any other presidential candidate, and was Obama's second-largest contributor.
In addition, Obama was the top congressional recipient of defense industry contributions for the 2008 election cycle. See this, this and this.
Obama was also the top recipient of money from the healthcare giants in the presidential election.
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I like your blog (found via zerohedge a while ago). One question I always had from Obama's 2008 campaign contributions is how U of California was his highest donor. Did the state donate? Were they anteing up for a pre-bailout?
ReplyDeleteLet's see, top Goldman Sachs recipient, top BP recipient. Anyone know who was tops on the insurance, drug, and AIPAC recipients lists? At best, Obama couldn't have been out of the top five. And these folks give away campaign money because they're public spirited, right? As I have long felt and have pointed out here, the chance of there ever being anything more than cosmetic reform with the kind of maggot donors and whore recipients that our political system has, crowding out the people at every opportunity the way they do, is zero. This article is testimony to the utter hopelessness of reliance upon the traditional mechanisms of democracy in this country, elections, congressional investigations and the like. Only mass demonstrations and the general strike have any real promise.
ReplyDeleteAndrei Vyshinsky
"Our government... teaches the whole people by its example. If the government becomes the lawbreaker, it breeds contempt for law; it invites every man to become a law unto himself; it invites anarchy" ... Louis D Brandeis (former Supreme Court Justice)
ReplyDeleteOur entire campaign contribution acquisition process is corrupt. It is obvious that these big donors saw that McCain was going to be the loser, therefore they funneled their cash into the potential winner. But, nevertheless, corrupt money breeds corruption.
ReplyDeletehttp://eye-on-washington.blogspot.com
And yet Obama is telling them to pay for the oil spill cleanup themselves.
ReplyDeleteAnd insulting them.
The only way to avoid the corruption inherent in election campaign funding by Israeli and corporate lobbies is allow taxpayers to claim a tax refund of $150 for $100 contributed to a candidate's campaign and making it illegal for a candidate to receive any other donations. Tatarewicz
ReplyDeleteA summary of the BP PAC data is below, from Open Secrets:
ReplyDelete2010
Total Spent - $173,781
Contributions to Federal Candidates - $75,550 (42% to Democrats, 58% to Republicans)
2008
Total Spent - $619,255
Contributions to Federal Candidates - $198,500 (41% to Democrats, 59% to Republicans)
2006
Total Spent - $601,696
Contributions to Federal Candidates - $219,500 (34% to Democrats, 65% to Republicans)
2004
Total Spent - $678,337
Contributions to Federal Candidates - $220,499 (38% to Democrats, 62% to Republicans)
U of California was his highest donor
ReplyDeleteA state university can't contribute to political campaigns, can it?
wake up infowars com
ReplyDeletehenrymakow com
amerika is run from the ten planks of the communist manifesto
wake the hell up and get a education
main stream media is bought and paid for
9 11 was a inside job
wake up