More precisely, the entire Finance Insurance and Real Estate (FIRE) sector spent that money lobbying, of which $879 million went directly to politicians' campaigns. That comes to $1,331 per minute spent influencing our elected leaders.
How do you think your influence stacks up against theirs? And remember, these titans of finance are the greediest and supposedly the smartest guys in America; if they spend that much money it means they think they'll get a good return on their investment.
You can use this Legislative Scorecard from Elect Democracy to see how much your Congressmen took from FIRE, and how loyal they were to FIRE in voting. I can see, for example, that Rep. Geoff Davis [R-KY] took $1.6 million from FIRE and has a loyalty rating of 86 percent. And KY Sen. Rand Paul [R-KY], who hasn't been in office long and has taken only $66,000, nevertheless has a 100 percent loyalty rating. But nobody tops Sen. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who took $6.2 million from FIRE since 2006... and of course displayed 100 percent loyalty.
Actually, that's not entirely true: President Barack Obama received $44 million from FIRE since 2006. Gee, I wonder where his loyalty is?
By Hillary Lehr
August 14, 2012 | YES! Magazine
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