The Republican Party has been the party tagged with the Wall Street-Big Business Label. This has presented Democrats with a convenient collection basket which they pass around rather effectively. At the same time they promote the Republican business-association fallacy.
The Huffington Post’s November 19th article, The 15 Biggest Congressional Recipients of Wall Street Campaign Cash, is revealing. For the 2010 election cycle so far 11 0f the top 15 recipients are Democrats. Here’s the list.
| Rank | Recipient | Party | Amount |
| 15 | Barney Frank | D | $387,749.00 |
| 14 | Carolyn Maloney | D | $396,750.00 |
| 13 | Ron Wyden | D | $404,750.00 |
| 12 | John Thune | R | $407,950.00 |
| 11 | Jim Himes | D | $430,123.00 |
| 10 | Richard Shelby | R | $502,150.00 |
| 9 | Blanche Lincoln | D | $515,000.00 |
| 8 | Eric Cantor | R | $516,197.00 |
| 7 | Arlen Specter | D | $552,175.00 |
| 6 | Mark Kirk | R | $557,375.00 |
| 5 | Michael Bennet | D | $612,804.00 |
| 4 | Chris Dodd | D | $752,698.00 |
| 3 | Harry Reid | D | $1,038,210.00 |
| 2 | Kirsten Gillibrand | D | $1,173,400.00 |
| 1 | Charles Schumer | D | $2,167,300.00 |
And it’s not only Wall Street. Jonah Goldberg’s December 9th post in National Review Online, The Real Fat-Cat Party, praises Tim Carney’s new book “Obamanomics” citing the drug industry’s contribution to Obama was 3.58 time its contribution to McCain. Jonah also mentions GE’s leadership of the U.S. Climate Action Partnership not because GE is a tree hugger but because it “stands to make billions from carbon pricing, thanks largely to investments in technologies that cannot survive in a free market without massive subsidies from Uncle Sam.”
The economists call this corporate influence buying “rent seeking,” that is the manipulation of government regulation and subsidies to attain revenue and business advantage that could not otherwise be attained in the free market. The political corollary for this is “vote seeking” or more appropriately, “power seeking!” The Democrats wrote the book on that.
So in essence we have a symbiotic relationship between big business-wall street and Congressional Democrats. I became personally aware of that when I questioned an old friend who was a partner in a Wall Street hedge fund on that fund’s employment of John Edwards the former Democratic Senator and VP Candidate. My chiding question was, is your firm going into the plaintiffs trial lawyer business! His response, no all these guys are Democrats and that’s where their money goes! In truth their connected at the hip and it has paid off for both sides. Just consider: the financial bailout, TARP, Obamacare, the House cap and trade bill, and the House financial regulatory package.
Who are the losers? We the taxpayers are. The small businesses which create a majority of the jobs and a majority of the innovation in this country are also losers. Likewise the younger generation will lose with the gigantic intergenerational transfer of benefits; the younger generation will get stuck with increasing deficits, an unsustainable mountain of debt, and a lower standard of living.
So the next time someone tries to blame it on the Republicans as the party of big business, set ‘em straight. It’s those damn Democrats!
Tom Motherway