Fixed Fortunes: Biggest corporate political interests spend billions, get trillions

While looking for information about campaign contributions to Democrat candidates for another Thread (www.abovetopsecret.com...) about "Wage Stagnation", I found a motherlode of information at The Sunshine Foundation.

sunlightfoundation.com...

And here is a direct link to a listing of the top 200 spenders in the US that when you click on a company name it takes you to a page with information about that company's campaign contributions and lobbying expenditures over the period 2007 to 2012.

Between 2007 and 2012, 200 of America’s most politically active corporations spent a combined $5.8 billion on federal lobbying and campaign contributions. A year-long analysis by the Sunlight Foundation suggests, however, that what they gave pales compared to what those same corporations got: $4.4 trillion in federal business and support.

That figure, more than the $4.3 trillion the federal government paid the nation’s 50 million Social Security recipients over the same period, is the result of an unprecedented effort to quantify the less-examined side of the campaign finance equation: Do political donors get something in return for what they give?

Four years ago, the U.S. Supreme Court suggested the answer to that question was no. Corporate spending to influence federal elections would not “give rise to corruption or the appearance of corruption,” the majority wrote in the landmark Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission decision.

It's easy to see from these figures (that federal corporate expenditures over the period slightly exceed federal social security outlays) why the big push from corporate interests to privitize social security. They (these wonderful corporate persons and the obscenely wealthy few who profit from them) want it all not just a share of our tax dollars - all of them.

Anyhow - it's a great source of data to backup most anything you might have to say.

Have fun!!

The corps have bought our government through the bribes paid in campaign funds.

We have the finest government money can buy!

Great resource, confirms what we all knew, but always good to have it in black and white. Depressing though.

a reply to: FyreByrd

Great source for Democrat corruption and why the Obama government is not pro-middle class.

a reply to: FyreByrd

This is the terminal phase of so-called capitalism.
enjoy.

originally posted by: InverseLookingGlass
a reply to: FyreByrd

This is the terminal phase of so-called capitalism.
enjoy.

Wonder if Marx was correct...