Just 158 Families Provided Nearly Half the Financing for Early Efforts for
the White House
http://www.truthdig.com/eartotheground/item/just_158_families_have_financed_
half_of_the_early_efforts_20151010/
Posted on Oct 10, 2015
aisletwentytwo / CC BY 2.0
An overwhelmingly older, white and male group of Americans who made fortunes
in finance and energy and represent just 158 families gave $176
million-almost half of all the money raised so far-to mostly Republican
presidential candidates in the early months of the race.
"Not since before Watergate have so few people and businesses provided so
much early money in a campaign, most of it through channels legalized by the
Supreme Court's Citizens United decision five years ago," writes The New
York Times, whose investigation revealed the numbers.
The Times reports:
These donors' fortunes reflect the shifting composition of the country's
economic elite. Relatively few work in the traditional ranks of corporate
America, or hail from dynasties of inherited wealth. Most built their own
businesses, parlaying talent and an appetite for risk into huge wealth: They
founded hedge funds in New York, bought up undervalued oil leases in Texas,
made blockbusters in Hollywood. More than a dozen of the elite donors were
born outside the United States, immigrating from countries like Cuba, the
old Soviet Union, Pakistan, India and Israel.
But regardless of industry, the families investing the most in presidential
politics overwhelmingly lean right, contributing tens of millions of dollars
to support Republican candidates who have pledged to pare regulations; cut
taxes on income, capital gains and inheritances; and shrink entitlements.
While such measures would help protect their own wealth, the donors describe
their embrace of them more broadly, as the surest means of promoting
economic growth and preserving a system that would allow others to prosper,
too. .
In marshaling their financial resources chiefly behind Republican
candidates, the donors are also serving as a kind of financial check on
demographic forces that have been nudging the electorate toward support for
the Democratic Party and its economic policies. Two-thirds of Americans
support higher taxes on those earning $1 million or more a year, according
to a June New York Times/CBS News poll, while six in 10 favor more
government intervention to reduce the gap between the rich and the poor.
According to the Pew Research Center, nearly seven in 10 favor preserving
Social Security and Medicare benefits as they are. .
The 158 families each contributed $250,000 or more in the campaign through
June 30, according to the most recent available Federal Election Commission
filings and other data, while an additional 200 families gave more than
$100,000. Together, the two groups contributed well over half the money in
the presidential election-the vast majority of it supporting Republicans.
"The campaign finance system is now a countervailing force to the way the
actual voters of the country are evolving and the policies they want," said
Ruy Teixeira, a political and demographic expert at the left-leaning Center
for American Progress. .
More than 50 members of these families have made the Forbes 400 list of the
country's top billionaires, marking a scale of wealth against which even a
million-dollar political contribution can seem relatively small. The Chicago
hedge fund billionaire Kenneth C. Griffin, for example, earns about $68.5
million a month after taxes, according to court filings made by his wife in
their divorce. He has given a total of $300,000 to groups backing Republican
presidential candidates. That is a huge sum on its face, yet is the
equivalent of only $21.17 for a typical American household.
Read more and see who the families are here.
-Posted by Alexander Reed Kelly.
http://www.truthdig.com/ http://www.truthdig.com/
Just 158 Families Provided Nearly Half the Financing for Early Efforts for
the White House
http://www.truthdig.com/eartotheground/item/just_158_families_have_financed_
half_of_the_early_efforts_20151010/
Posted on Oct 10, 2015
aisletwentytwo / CC BY 2.0
An overwhelmingly older, white and male group of Americans who made fortunes
in finance and energy and represent just 158 families gave $176
million-almost half of all the money raised so far-to mostly Republican
presidential candidates in the early months of the race.
"Not since before Watergate have so few people and businesses provided so
much early money in a campaign, most of it through channels legalized by the
Supreme Court's Citizens United decision five years ago," writes The New
York Times, whose investigation revealed the numbers.
The Times reports:
These donors' fortunes reflect the shifting composition of the country's
economic elite. Relatively few work in the traditional ranks of corporate
America, or hail from dynasties of inherited wealth. Most built their own
businesses, parlaying talent and an appetite for risk into huge wealth: They
founded hedge funds in New York, bought up undervalued oil leases in Texas,
made blockbusters in Hollywood. More than a dozen of the elite donors were
born outside the United States, immigrating from countries like Cuba, the
old Soviet Union, Pakistan, India and Israel.
But regardless of industry, the families investing the most in presidential
politics overwhelmingly lean right, contributing tens of millions of dollars
to support Republican candidates who have pledged to pare regulations; cut
taxes on income, capital gains and inheritances; and shrink entitlements.
While such measures would help protect their own wealth, the donors describe
their embrace of them more broadly, as the surest means of promoting
economic growth and preserving a system that would allow others to prosper,
too. .
In marshaling their financial resources chiefly behind Republican
candidates, the donors are also serving as a kind of financial check on
demographic forces that have been nudging the electorate toward support for
the Democratic Party and its economic policies. Two-thirds of Americans
support higher taxes on those earning $1 million or more a year, according
to a June New York Times/CBS News poll, while six in 10 favor more
government intervention to reduce the gap between the rich and the poor.
According to the Pew Research Center, nearly seven in 10 favor preserving
Social Security and Medicare benefits as they are. .
The 158 families each contributed $250,000 or more in the campaign through
June 30, according to the most recent available Federal Election Commission
filings and other data, while an additional 200 families gave more than
$100,000. Together, the two groups contributed well over half the money in
the presidential election-the vast majority of it supporting Republicans.
"The campaign finance system is now a countervailing force to the way the
actual voters of the country are evolving and the policies they want," said
Ruy Teixeira, a political and demographic expert at the left-leaning Center
for American Progress. .
More than 50 members of these families have made the Forbes 400 list of the
country's top billionaires, marking a scale of wealth against which even a
million-dollar political contribution can seem relatively small. The Chicago
hedge fund billionaire Kenneth C. Griffin, for example, earns about $68.5
million a month after taxes, according to court filings made by his wife in
their divorce. He has given a total of $300,000 to groups backing Republican
presidential candidates. That is a huge sum on its face, yet is the
equivalent of only $21.17 for a typical American household.
Read more and see who the families are here.
-Posted by Alexander Reed Kelly.
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