Heavy Hitters: Top 100 Rent Seekers 1989-2010
From OpenSecrets.org: "In boxing, big punchers seek knockouts. In government, the same principle applies: The wealthiest corporations and special interest groups usually pepper politicians with overwhelming amounts of money in hope of influencing the political process. Here you'll find total contributions for the 100 biggest givers in federal-level politics since 1989 -- information that exists nowhere else."
MP: Here are the top 18 below (click to enlarge), look at all of the donkeys!!
HT: Art Little
6 Comments:
OpenSecrets.org lists the top lobbying sectors for the same time period. The Heavy Hitters need tons of more dollars to come close to these Super Heavy Hitters. The top dollar spending lobbying sectors seem to have gotten the rent seeking financial backstop they wanted.
Why does ATT need government support so badly?
Although I suspect those who spend big money on politics are primarily rent seekers, just listing the amount spent tells us nothing about the goal behind the expenditures. Spending money in self-defense to stop harmful legislation is also possible, and unfortunately, frequently necessary.
There seems to be a negative correlation, if not causation, between spending and customer service levels for the companies/unions on this list.
To answer Anon at 9:37, the FCC regulates both the land line part of the business and the wireless part of the business, as well as a piece of their internet business. Recall that the gov. broke up the old ATT with an antitrust lawsuit, and that todays ATT is really Southwestern Bell who bought out ATT because it was about to go belly up.
So they want the FCC to lower regulations on communications? Sounds good to me.
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