ver a decade after Citizens United and as the rich grow ever richer, billionaires are rapidly taking over Capitol Hill with political donations — and, as a new report shows, the Republican Party is a major beneficiary of this supposed generosity.
This election cycle, nearly half of the funding (47 percent) raised by the two major Republican congressional super PACs came from just 27 billionaires, a new report from Americans for Tax Fairness revealed on Wednesday. That’s $89.4 million, straight from the pockets of over two dozen of America’s richest people.
The vast majority of those billionaires — 86 percent — gleaned their fortunes from Wall Street; in turn, the finance sector benefits the most from GOP tax cuts and corporate handouts. These donors include Rupert Murdoch, founder of Fox News; Charles and Helen Schwab, the former of whom founded finance giant Charles Schwab; Ross Perot Jr., a Texas real estate magnate; and Trevor and Jan Rees-Jones, whose wealth comes from Chief Oil & Gas, which is credited as a pioneer of fracking.
The report says that these figures still don’t capture the full extent to which billionaires influence politics, as the rich are also able to donate through corporations and organizations without the donations bearing their names.
Billionaires have […]
No one NEEDS a billion dollars. These billionaires should think with their hearts and divide their money amongst the poor who could use help right now and will need more in the future. I would feel ashamed to have a billion dollars and not be sharing it with the poor. The government should help make this happen if we had votes which REALLY counted.