By Cliff Montgomery – July 13th, 2012
We at The American Spark feel that it is a reporter’s job to tell you what’s really going on in politics and society, and that a journalist must do so simply and plainly. That sometimes means calling things by their rightful names, and ignoring the propaganda of the politicians and the corporate press.
So we offer this admission: When people send money to politicians, we don’t like to call those actions, ‘donations’ or ‘contributions’.
We use a more honest language and flatly call them bribes.
Top ‘contributors’ do not work to ‘voice an opinion’. Protests, letters to lawmakers and voting are the means of voicing one’s opinion in a working democracy. ‘Contributions’ are just forms of glorified bribery – and the bigger the ‘donation’, the more influential the bribe.
As America slides into the final months of the 2012 campaigns for the White House, The American Spark will reveal to its readers just who has spent the most money buying our country’s presidential candidates.
We begin with Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney. The GOP candidate has attracted quite a bit of scrutiny as to how he has made and managed his estimated fortune of $250 million. But strangely, few seem to question who has been buying the candidate as he reaches for the White House.
This can easily be determined by looking at the available financial information on presidential campaigns, which as most readers know is collected and periodically released by the Federal Election Commission (FEC).
Two things immediately stand out as one reviews FEC information released on June 21, 2012:
- Almost all of Romney’s most generous ‘donors’ are large financial service firms.
- The lion’s share of Romney’s campaign dollars – a whopping 87% – has come from large individual contributions.
As the Center For Responsive Politics – which obtained and released the FEC data on Romney – explained on its website OpenSecrets:
The organizations themselves did not donate – rather the money came from the organizations’ PACs, their individual members or employees or owners, and those individuals’ immediate families. Organization totals include subsidiaries and affiliates.
“Because of contribution limits, organizations that bundle together many individual contributions are often among the top donors to presidential candidates,” added the website.
Here are the current top 20 ‘contributors’ to the Romney presidential campaign, according to the Center For Responsive Politics:
Goldman Sachs: $593,080
JPMorgan Chase & Co: $467,089
Bank of America: $425,100
Morgan Stanley: $399,850
Credit Suisse Group: $390,360
Citigroup Inc: $312,800
Kirkland & Ellis: $264,302
Wells Fargo: $237,550
Barclays: $234,650
PricewaterhouseCoopers: $227,250
Deloitte LLP: $222,250
HIG Capital: $216,995
UBS AG: $207,750
Blackstone Group: $198,800
Bain Capital: $156,500
Elliott Management: $146,275
Marriott International: $137,827
General Electric: $135,450
Bain & Co: $130,550
EMC Corp: $129,450
