Democrats like to complain about “secret rich donors” who try to use their money to impose an agenda on the public ever since the Supreme Court loosened campaign finance laws with the Citizens United decision. They generally use the Koch Brothers as an example.
What they don’t tell you is how much liberal Democrats depend on people like Tom Steyer (or George Soros, or local folks like Nick Hanauer and Tom Campion, but those are stories for another day).
However, what folks who are paying attention to campaign finance in Washington State already know, and what the LA Times wrote about in December, is his how the California billionaire Steyer is trying use his Wall Street wealth to impose his extreme environmental views on the rest of us.
Steyer has spent more than $35 million in the last three years on candidates and initiatives to raise taxes, keep extreme environmental policies in place, and launch negative independent expenditure attacks against Republicans in states he doesn’t live in – like Massachusetts, Virginia and, yes, Washington State.
As the LA Times wrote:
“in Steyer, liberals have a billionaire on their side. Like the Kochs, he is building a vast political network and seizing opportunities provided by loose campaign finance rules to insert himself into elections nationwide. In direct contrast to them, he has made opposition to fossil fuels and the campaign against global warming the center of his activism.
“The former financier is an unlikely green icon. Steyer built his fortune with a San Francisco-based hedge fund of the sort that drove protesters to occupy Wall Street. Some of the investments that landed him on the Forbes list of America’s wealthiest went into companies he now says are destroying the planet. Adversaries and, in private, at least some erstwhile allies call him a dilettante.”
Steyer is a prime example of the hypocrisy of the left. They rail against conservatives who get active in politics, while hiding their own involvement in attack campaigns. This year in Washington, he laundered his money through two in-state political action committees in a failed effort to keep Jan Angel from being promoted to the state senate.
We can expect more of the same noxious investments from Steyer in our state in 2014, all while his liberal followers attack “secret donors” they don’t agree with and ignore their dependence on out-of-state billionaires. It’s a lie they are very used to telling.
$35 million in 3 yrs is chump change compared with $400 million in one year from the Koch brothers to deny global climate change, abolish environmental regulation and put teabaggers into our government.
That’s $400 million of lies pounded into the feeble brains of clueless Republican foot soldiers.
And to that you can add another $325 million from Karl Rove’s anonymous lie factory.
Add it up and you get $725 million just for the 2012 election.
Thank you, justintime, for trolling the conservative trolls. You make this site readable.
You’re welcome.
No one denies that the climate changes; the debate is whether it is caused by man or natural cycles. The destructiveness of the environmental movement is that unfathomable sums of money are being wasted with little demonstrable effect. Lives are ruined when jobs are lost.
Even this latest cold snap isn’t new. It may not have been this cold for several years, but I grew up in temperatures of -40/-70 including wind chill. Not common, but not unheard of either. 30 below was a fairly regular occurrence. This latest push for global warming wealth redistribution is exactly that – a tool to redistribute dollars from the very poorest to the wealthiest.
I think it is the absolute height of man’s arrogance to think he can control climate.
Climate Change is caused by humans – burning hydrocarbon fuels. That’s just a proven fact. Are you anti science? Are you willfully stupid?
Since Climate Change is caused by burning hydrocarbons we can turn this around by simply stopping the burning of hydrocarbons. That’s not arrogance, that’s just common sense.
Not willfully stupid at all. Just willing to consider both sides of the “discussion” as even scientists have strong differences of opinion. Are you willingly closed minded?
Scientists have proven that global warming is man-caused.
They have (with real world data) also proven that if we continue burning hydrocarbons we are headed for a catastrophic disaster. There are only a few crackpot pseudo scientists, most of them funded by the petroleum industry, who are disputing the conclusions of the scientific community.
The science is NOT in dispute over man caused climate change. We are doing it to ourselves, and there’s Hell to pay for your willful ignorance.
Some scientists agree with you. Some agree with me. But I’m not interested in pursuing this topic anymore today. Both of us have our own opinion and we will continue to disagree. You can think whatever you want about my “ignorance”. Your opinion changes but nothing.
This isn’t just my opinion, Patriot.
99.9% of the entire scientific community and ALL of the climate scientists agree that it’s caused by humans burning hydrocarbon fuels and that we damned well better do something about it immediately or there’s Hell to pay.
The only so called experts who say “don’t worry about climate change” are the crackpots, the scientists-for-rent by the oil companies and fundamentalist nutjobs.
If you’re a real Patriot and not one of those willfully ignorant fools, you need to stop listening to the crackpots and learn about climate science.
Be a Patriot and help us do something about catastrophic change.
Wow! 99.9% of WHAT scientific community? You must read from a different Internet than I do.
I’m still waiting for PROOF. When I see report after report that the average global temperatures have not risen, for over a decade, I find hysterical remarks like yours laughable, except for the fact that you and your buddies believe what you’re spewing.
Oh, and let’s not forget the FACT that many of your scientists are now claiming that the fictional data in the movie “The Day After Tomorrow” is serving to explain the extreme cold (due to global warming) in many parts of the world. On the other hand, maybe we should be turning our thermostats DOWN when it gets cold…
Now, can you at least try to understand why so many of us count the liberal left as loser nutcases? I’m just glad most of them hate guns…otherwise, we’d really have a war on our hands.
Are you saying that the scientific evidence of cyclical heating and cooling of the earth has been caused by humans, too? Are you suggesting that the earth’s axial wobble, variations in our sun’s energy output, volcanic eruptions, etc. have nothing to do with the variations in earth’s climate when compared to the geological timetable?
The global warming reality is beyond cyclical.
Get the facts and stay away from the crackpots.
Climate change is so solid a theory that YOUR PEOPLE have to lie and publish fraudulent data to support it. You are aware of this proven fact? You do recall that very public presentation of this very thing just a year or so ago? Right?
Got any facts?
No justintime it is ignorance. Accept for the moment that climate change exists and that it is caused by humans, well your Science community will tell you, if you pay attention, that the planet would continue to warm for decades if emissions were cut to ZERO tomorrow. You appear ignorant of your own “science”.
The question that must be asked is what level of warming is acceptable and … wait for it ….. what would it take to achieve that level. No one will answer this question, because the issue is not an issue but an agenda. No one will answer the question, because the answer would unravel the agenda, because the answer to the question is so beyond any form of reality. The answer is something like 5000 nuclear power plants 20,000,000 windmills (land does not exist for such) 50,000 bio diseal plants, and on and on and on. And this assumes China and India are on board.
If there is no workable solution, then what is the point. The point is the agenda and nothing more.
Another load of hogwash from the factman.
$35 million in 3 yrs is chump change compared with $400 million in one year from the Koch brothers to deny global climate change, abolish environmental regulation and put teabaggers into our government.
That’s $400 million of lies pounded into the feeble brains of clueless Republican foot soldiers.
And to that you can add another $325 million from Karl Rove’s anonymous lie factory.
Add it up and you get $725 million just for the 2012 election.
Thank you, justintime, for trolling the conservative trolls. You make this site readable.
You’re welcome.
No one denies that the climate changes; the debate is whether it is caused by man or natural cycles. The destructiveness of the environmental movement is that unfathomable sums of money are being wasted with little demonstrable effect. Lives are ruined when jobs are lost.
Even this latest cold snap isn’t new. It may not have been this cold for several years, but I grew up in temperatures of -40/-70 including wind chill. Not common, but not unheard of either. 30 below was a fairly regular occurrence. This latest push for global warming wealth redistribution is exactly that – a tool to redistribute dollars from the very poorest to the wealthiest.
I think it is the absolute height of man’s arrogance to think he can control climate.
Climate Change is caused by humans – burning hydrocarbon fuels. That’s just a proven fact. Are you anti science? Are you willfully stupid?
Since Climate Change is caused by burning hydrocarbons we can turn this around by simply stopping the burning of hydrocarbons. That’s not arrogance, that’s just common sense.
Not willfully stupid at all. Just willing to consider both sides of the “discussion” as even scientists have strong differences of opinion. Are you willingly closed minded?
Scientists have proven that global warming is man-caused.
They have (with real world data) also proven that if we continue burning hydrocarbons we are headed for a catastrophic disaster. There are only a few crackpot pseudo scientists, most of them funded by the petroleum industry, who are disputing the conclusions of the scientific community.
The science is NOT in dispute over man caused climate change. We are doing it to ourselves, and there’s Hell to pay for your willful ignorance.
Some scientists agree with you. Some agree with me. But I’m not interested in pursuing this topic anymore today. Both of us have our own opinion and we will continue to disagree. You can think whatever you want about my “ignorance”. Your opinion changes but nothing.
This isn’t just my opinion, Patriot.
99.9% of the entire scientific community and ALL of the climate scientists agree that it’s caused by humans burning hydrocarbon fuels and that we damned well better do something about it immediately or there’s Hell to pay.
The only so called experts who say “don’t worry about climate change” are the crackpots, the scientists-for-rent by the oil companies and fundamentalist nutjobs.
If you’re a real Patriot and not one of those willfully ignorant fools, you need to stop listening to the crackpots and learn about climate science.
Be a Patriot and help us do something about catastrophic change.
Wow! 99.9% of WHAT scientific community? You must read from a different Internet than I do.
I’m still waiting for PROOF. When I see report after report that the average global temperatures have not risen, for over a decade, I find hysterical remarks like yours laughable, except for the fact that you and your buddies believe what you’re spewing.
Oh, and let’s not forget the FACT that many of your scientists are now claiming that the fictional data in the movie “The Day After Tomorrow” is serving to explain the extreme cold (due to global warming) in many parts of the world. On the other hand, maybe we should be turning our thermostats DOWN when it gets cold…
Now, can you at least try to understand why so many of us count the liberal left as loser nutcases? I’m just glad most of them hate guns…otherwise, we’d really have a war on our hands.
Are you saying that the scientific evidence of cyclical heating and cooling of the earth has been caused by humans, too? Are you suggesting that the earth’s axial wobble, variations in our sun’s energy output, volcanic eruptions, etc. have nothing to do with the variations in earth’s climate when compared to the geological timetable?
The global warming reality is beyond cyclical.
Get the facts and stay away from the crackpots.
Climate change is so solid a theory that YOUR PEOPLE have to lie and publish fraudulent data to support it. You are aware of this proven fact? You do recall that very public presentation of this very thing just a year or so ago? Right?
Got any facts?
No justintime it is ignorance. Accept for the moment that climate change exists and that it is caused by humans, well your Science community will tell you, if you pay attention, that the planet would continue to warm for decades if emissions were cut to ZERO tomorrow. You appear ignorant of your own “science”.
The question that must be asked is what level of warming is acceptable and … wait for it ….. what would it take to achieve that level. No one will answer this question, because the issue is not an issue but an agenda. No one will answer the question, because the answer would unravel the agenda, because the answer to the question is so beyond any form of reality. The answer is something like 5000 nuclear power plants 20,000,000 windmills (land does not exist for such) 50,000 bio diseal plants, and on and on and on. And this assumes China and India are on board.
If there is no workable solution, then what is the point. The point is the agenda and nothing more.
Another load of hogwash from the factman.
Liberal Lie #1: Republicans have secret rich conservative donors, but Democrats depend on grassroots supporters
This headline is, in itself, A BIG LIE!
Liberal Lie #1: Republicans have secret rich conservative donors, but Democrats depend on grassroots supporters
This headline is, in itself, A BIG LIE!
From here on out, the only way republicans can win elections is to LIE, CHEAT and STEAL.
From here on out, the only way republicans can win elections is to LIE, CHEAT and STEAL.
You error in your article by stating that liberals are unaware of their billions flowing in from the likes of Soros, Unions, etal. They know very well and they do not care. So the lie stands, more institutional money flows into the Democrats from special interests than the GOP could ever hope for. But, other than proving once again how the left can only win by lying, what is the point? Ideas win if they are expressed.
Apparently JusttheFacts has run out of facts. I don’t think he ever had any facts. He traffics in right wing rumors, talking points.
No numbers = no facts
So you deny that labor unions are major Demcorat supporters? You deny that Soro spends tens of million on leftist positions?
How typical and extremely laughable that you would suggest that any of the level headed on this board trade in rumors, my God look in a mirror! You have never substaciated one of your positions, no .. not even a position ,,, just conclusions.
Get the facts before shooting off your mouth, factman.
Capital Rivals: Koch Brothers vs George Soros
http://www.opensecrets.org/news/2010/09/opensecrets-battle—koch-brothers.html
http://www.thenewamerican.com/usnews/politics/item/11321-george-soros-democratic-donors-contribute-millions-to-super-pacs
You error in your article by stating that liberals are unaware of their billions flowing in from the likes of Soros, Unions, etal. They know very well and they do not care. So the lie stands, more institutional money flows into the Democrats from special interests than the GOP could ever hope for. But, other than proving once again how the left can only win by lying, what is the point? Ideas win if they are expressed.
Apparently JusttheFacts has run out of facts. I don’t think he ever had any facts. He traffics in right wing rumors, talking points.
No numbers = no facts
So you deny that labor unions are major Demcorat supporters? You deny that Soro spends tens of million on leftist positions?
How typical and extremely laughable that you would suggest that any of the level headed on this board trade in rumors, my God look in a mirror! You have never substaciated one of your positions, no .. not even a position ,,, just conclusions.
Get the facts before shooting off your mouth, factman.
Capital Rivals: Koch Brothers vs George Soros
http://www.opensecrets.org/news/2010/09/opensecrets-battle—koch-brothers.html
http://www.thenewamerican.com/usnews/politics/item/11321-george-soros-democratic-donors-contribute-millions-to-super-pacs
Even our friend, Justintime, lies by excluding the mention of Soros and Union PACs in his posts. An omission is a lie. Typical of the left. Facts can bury them.
In addition to Steyer, there is also the TIDES Foundation funding all kinds of policies that are destructive to America. Smokescreens for lots of rich Democrats.
I think the Republican party needs many more donors like the Koch Brothers who actually create jobs and prosperity for thousands of employees – real people with real lives.
Got any numbers?
you can find lots of data at discoverthenetworks
That’s David Horowitz’s right wing crazy hate site.
You should broaden your knowledge base and stay away from the crazy stuff.
Call it what you will, he is not the only one to put this information together. Dig it or don’t. I don’t believe that ignorance is bliss.
You are one to ask, Mr. I don’t need no stinkin facts just call names.
I haven’t seen any of your facts, factman.
Do you have any facts? How much did Soros donate to democratic campaigns? How much did the unions donate? No numbers = no facts.
David Koch: $1,472,000
$1,352,000 � Republican Governors Association
$100,000 � Americans for Better Government
George Soros: $32,506,500
$12.05 million � Joint Victory Campaign 2004
$7.5 million � America Coming Together
$2.5 million � MoveOn.org
$3.65 million � America Votes
$3.5 million � The Fund for America
$150,000 � Win Back Respect
$120,000 � Majority Action
$100,000 � Campaign Money Watch
I might be worried if you had any facts.
Even our friend, Justintime, lies by excluding the mention of Soros and Union PACs in his posts. An omission is a lie. Typical of the left. Facts can bury them.
In addition to Steyer, there is also the TIDES Foundation funding all kinds of policies that are destructive to America. Smokescreens for lots of rich Democrats.
I think the Republican party needs many more donors like the Koch Brothers who actually create jobs and prosperity for thousands of employees – real people with real lives.
Got any numbers?
you can find lots of data at discoverthenetworks
That’s David Horowitz’s right wing crazy hate site.
You should broaden your knowledge base and stay away from the crazy stuff.
Call it what you will, he is not the only one to put this information together. Dig it or don’t. I don’t believe that ignorance is bliss.
You are one to ask, Mr. I don’t need no stinkin facts just call names.
I haven’t seen any of your facts, factman.
Do you have any facts? How much did Soros donate to democratic campaigns? How much did the unions donate? No numbers = no facts.
David Koch: $1,472,000
$1,352,000 � Republican Governors Association
$100,000 � Americans for Better Government
George Soros: $32,506,500
$12.05 million � Joint Victory Campaign 2004
$7.5 million � America Coming Together
$2.5 million � MoveOn.org
$3.65 million � America Votes
$3.5 million � The Fund for America
$150,000 � Win Back Respect
$120,000 � Majority Action
$100,000 � Campaign Money Watch
I might be worried if you had any facts.
Campaign financing is a major problem, the supreme court ruling, is allowing political offices to go to the highest bidder. No longer can we see a Mr Smith goes to Washington for the good of the people election, unless Mr. Smith has a few billionaire friends. I am afraid politics to the highest bidder is here to stay. Instead of arguing over who has richer friends, why don’t we solve the problem, and level the playing field, public financing of elections is not a dirty word to the working tax payer. Instead it is an idea to provide fairness, like NFL teams having salary cap, we should limit campaign spending, this could help bring back citizen represented government. But, Political leaders don’t want to play fair or equal, they only want what is best for their pockets, it is now WINNER TAKE ALL POLITICS.
I hate the big money campaigns, but feel it wasn’t fair that public sector unions (funded by taxpayers) can fund any campaign, but an American corporation that employees people couldn’t donate.
There has to be a transparent way of funding campaigns and getting rid of lobbyists and special interests groups is one head of the snake.
Corporations donate tons of money to political campaigns but since Citizens United, they don’t have to report it.
I do agree with your point on transparency. Take that up with the Roberts Stooge court.
So, are you saying that liberals don’t receive large donations from corporations, business people, Hollywood elites, environmental groups, grass root coalitions, radical anti-Christians, etc.?
Or, are you upset because liberals don’t get more than they already receive?
Of course democrats fund their campaigns too.
But the numbers prove that the article we are commenting about is an outright lie, unsupported by facts.
What facts are those, justintime? Ohhhhh, that is right the fact the you SAY xyz makes it true, after all you are a liberal.
Care to comment on Soros?
Organization-Driven Political Activity
The Koch brothers company, Koch Industries, has been a big player in both campaign donations and lobbying. Koch Industries currently leads the oil and gas industry as the top contributor to federal candidates and parties, and is the fifth highest lobbying spender in the industry this year. Soros hedge fund, Soros Fund Management, has also lobbied at the federal level, but employees have not made campaign donations through a Soros-sponsored political action committee. Because of the notable lobbying involvement of a Soros-funded think tank, the Open Society Policy Center, this group’s data is also included for the purpose of this comparison:
Political Action Committee Spending (1989 to 2010)
Koch Industries: $5,938,993 (83 percent going to Republicans)
Soros Fund Management: $0
527 Group Contributions (2001 to 2010)
Koch Industries: $574,998
$186,598 Democratic Governors Association
$150,000 Republican State Leadership Committee
$103,400 Republican Governors Association
Soros Fund Management: $0
Lobbying Expenditures (1998 to 2010)
Koch Industries: $50,972,700
Soros Fund Management: $860,000
Open Society Policy Center (Soros-Funded): $11,930,000
According to federal lobbying reports, Koch Industries top issues include energy, environmental, tax and homeland security policies. The Open Society Policy Center hasmainly lobbied on issues relating to foreign relations, civil rights, and law enforcement policy. The graph below outlines these organizations lobbying history since 1998 (click on graph for full size):
VERDICT: When it comes to the combination of institutional lobbying, 527 group donations and PAC expenditures, Koch Industries far out-spends Soros hedge fund and think tank, $57.4 million to $12.8 million. Most of this money is attributable to lobbying expenditures.
Justintime, did you know that the teachers two unions, the SEIU, and another union all contributed over 31 million EACH in the last election?
Good for them!
They deserve responsible leadership in government too.
http://www.followthemoney.org/database/nationalview.phtml?l=0&f=0&y=2012&abbr=0&filters=none&g%5B%5D=9&g%5B%5D=12 Here are state by state contributions for government agencies, labor, and education by state
You brought up Soros but since you have offered no facts, only rumors and talking points, I’m posting these facts from Open Secrets. Go suck on it.
Money is not the problem. Like it or not money is free speech. The left is afraid of the reality, truth, and ideas. This is why they wish to stifle the voice of the right. They have billions from labor unions, and lawyers, and environmental groups, etc. FACT But when a conservative wishes a voice, no, no, no, can not have that.
I say all is fine. Let liberty and free speech present ideas and if that takes funding then so be it. Then require that that funding be identified up from. If a union with it’s agenda buys and ad you know where the lies are likely coming from. If an oil company buys and ad, people can decide for themselves if it factual, or agenda loaded. Grow up people, and think for yourself and don’t be a leftist and be afraid of the truth.
All you republicans have is money.
But money won’t buy you love.
Democrats are the party of the special interests. The people of WA in general are of little interest to democrats. The democrats work hard to make WA government inefficient and bloatedly expensive, while the citizens deserve instead an efficient and affordable government. Republicans are the only party that actually understood that 2/3 to raise taxes passed in EVERY county last time it was on the ballot just over a year ago. Democrats ignored the people completely on that issue, preferring to raise taxes to line the pockets of their special-interest donors.
Just a crock of hogwash! Full of unsupported lies from conservative rumor mills.
Why are the democrats constantly trying to raise taxes if it’s ‘hogwash’? That’s all they ever try to do. If you don’t realize that, you’re not paying attention.
Democrats try to raise taxes to pay for our government.
You get what you pay for.
Democrats want good government and we are willing to pay for good government.
Republicans are a party of rich freeloaders. America’s wealthy elite want to take advantage of a weak government to increase their profits and make it easier for them to prey on working Americans. And they want working Americans to pay for the government they abuse.
It would be nice if we got what we pay for, but we don’t even get that. Democrats put in rules like prevailing wage to insure the citizens don’t get the infrastructure they paid for, and they tax spending on roads in So the taxpayers get less for their $$. If Democrats are so sincere about wanting good government, then Detroit may be sadly descriptive about what their ‘dream’ government looks like. They’ve run the place for decades, and not for the benefit of the people but for the benefit of the politicians and overpromising to those who work for it, b/c the dem pols liked all the campaign donations they got from them.
Those ‘rich freeloaders’ you claim exist (democrat talking points that don’t even make sense) are the ones paying all the taxes, which is why a recent CBO report showed that when it comes to individual income taxes, the top 40% pay 109% of the total tax bill. The bottom 40% pay -9%. That’s NEGATIVE 9 percent. The middle 20%: less than 3%.
Time to scrap your democrat talking points, which are based on fabrications designed to completely mislead with propaganda based on thin air.
http://www.cnbc.com/id/101264757 The ‘rich’ are paying ‘more’ than 100% of the taxes, as reported by CBO and this CNBC report
..and when it comes to individual income taxes, democrats are NOT willing to pay more; they are willing for OTHER people to pay more in taxes. See the CBO report once more for proof….
That CBO report doesn’t prove your claims
And speaking of democrats willing to pay more in taxes, we all remember well all the Obama cabinet nominees, uber-wealthy democrats who were found time and again to have unpaid owed taxes in eye-popping amounts$$. They weren’t willing to pay until they got caught…
Of course there have never been any wealthy republican tax dodgers?
Taxes on the wealthy elite have never been lower than they are right now. Even Reagan raised taxes.
Republicans are rich freeloaders that want to “starve the beast”. They want working Americans to pay for government. If you don’t like government, how can you govern?
CNBC cherry picked the data from the CBO report.
And don’t forget that Federal income taxes are only part of the total tax obligations of working Americans.
The tax increase was after a huge Tax cut that Reagan got passed. It was a tiny change. But remember he had a Democrat Congress he had to work with that were considered big spenders. Reagan wanted to limit the growth of government to 3 to 5% but the Democrats grew the budget 7 to 12% depending on the department.
..and thank goodness the republican-dominated senate majority told the Dems last go-around “no, we will NOT raise taxes as you say you want to; we will live within our means and create a spending plan that does not include tax increases, b/c the people don’t want tax increases; their vote on 2/3 says they don’t like them.
Typical leftist. Never present a fact, just name call and deny reality. A product of public education, never had to write or term paper, of if you did your leftist teach gave it an A because on the Thesis and not any supporting documentation. How sad for the nation. Care to comment on Soros money? Of course you don’t.
see above
Sorry but Democrat party on the National level is a Socialist party. And yes there are Republicans that support Socialist polices. Freedom of the individual removed as good for all is considered the rule of the day. When Democrats use the term the Constitution is a living document they can change the meaning without changing the Constitution equates to considering the Founding Fathers ideas of Government is too limiting to their desire to increase power of the Federal government. The founders put limits on the Federal government which have been removed over the past century. Now they can make a move to remove all protections of the constitution in the name of the what ever the special interests consider good to tell others how to live their life. the current recession is worse than any others by the policies used for the recession on the Federal and State level. Government is the problem. The democrats no longer have Statesmen that care about the American People instead it all about Power.
Campaign financing is a major problem, the supreme court ruling, is allowing political offices to go to the highest bidder. No longer can we see a Mr Smith goes to Washington for the good of the people election, unless Mr. Smith has a few billionaire friends. I am afraid politics to the highest bidder is here to stay. Instead of arguing over who has richer friends, why don’t we solve the problem, and level the playing field, public financing of elections is not a dirty word to the working tax payer. Instead it is an idea to provide fairness, like NFL teams having salary cap, we should limit campaign spending, this could help bring back citizen represented government. But, Political leaders don’t want to play fair or equal, they only want what is best for their pockets, it is now WINNER TAKE ALL POLITICS.
I hate the big money campaigns, but feel it wasn’t fair that public sector unions (funded by taxpayers) can fund any campaign, but an American corporation that employees people couldn’t donate.
There has to be a transparent way of funding campaigns and getting rid of lobbyists and special interests groups is one head of the snake.
Corporations donate tons of money to political campaigns but since Citizens United, they don’t have to report it.
I do agree with your point on transparency. Take that up with the Roberts Stooge court.
So, are you saying that liberals don’t receive large donations from corporations, business people, Hollywood elites, environmental groups, grass root coalitions, radical anti-Christians, etc.?
Or, are you upset because liberals don’t get more than they already receive?
Of course democrats fund their campaigns too.
But the numbers prove that the article we are commenting about is an outright lie, unsupported by facts.
What facts are those, justintime? Ohhhhh, that is right the fact the you SAY xyz makes it true, after all you are a liberal.
Care to comment on Soros?
Organization-Driven Political Activity
The Koch brothers company, Koch Industries, has been a big player in both campaign donations and lobbying. Koch Industries currently leads the oil and gas industry as the top contributor to federal candidates and parties, and is the fifth highest lobbying spender in the industry this year. Soros hedge fund, Soros Fund Management, has also lobbied at the federal level, but employees have not made campaign donations through a Soros-sponsored political action committee. Because of the notable lobbying involvement of a Soros-funded think tank, the Open Society Policy Center, this group’s data is also included for the purpose of this comparison:
Political Action Committee Spending (1989 to 2010)
Koch Industries: $5,938,993 (83 percent going to Republicans)
Soros Fund Management: $0
527 Group Contributions (2001 to 2010)
Koch Industries: $574,998
$186,598 Democratic Governors Association
$150,000 Republican State Leadership Committee
$103,400 Republican Governors Association
Soros Fund Management: $0
Lobbying Expenditures (1998 to 2010)
Koch Industries: $50,972,700
Soros Fund Management: $860,000
Open Society Policy Center (Soros-Funded): $11,930,000
According to federal lobbying reports, Koch Industries top issues include energy, environmental, tax and homeland security policies. The Open Society Policy Center hasmainly lobbied on issues relating to foreign relations, civil rights, and law enforcement policy. The graph below outlines these organizations lobbying history since 1998 (click on graph for full size):
VERDICT: When it comes to the combination of institutional lobbying, 527 group donations and PAC expenditures, Koch Industries far out-spends Soros hedge fund and think tank, $57.4 million to $12.8 million. Most of this money is attributable to lobbying expenditures.
Justintime, did you know that the teachers two unions, the SEIU, and another union all contributed over 31 million EACH in the last election?
Good for them!
They deserve responsible leadership in government too.
http://www.followthemoney.org/database/nationalview.phtml?l=0&f=0&y=2012&abbr=0&filters=none&g%5B%5D=9&g%5B%5D=12 Here are state by state contributions for government agencies, labor, and education by state
You brought up Soros but since you have offered no facts, only rumors and talking points, I’m posting these facts from Open Secrets. Go suck on it.
Money is not the problem. Like it or not money is free speech. The left is afraid of the reality, truth, and ideas. This is why they wish to stifle the voice of the right. They have billions from labor unions, and lawyers, and environmental groups, etc. FACT But when a conservative wishes a voice, no, no, no, can not have that.
I say all is fine. Let liberty and free speech present ideas and if that takes funding then so be it. Then require that that funding be identified up from. If a union with it’s agenda buys and ad you know where the lies are likely coming from. If an oil company buys and ad, people can decide for themselves if it factual, or agenda loaded. Grow up people, and think for yourself and don’t be a leftist and be afraid of the truth.
All you republicans have is money.
But money won’t buy you love.
Democrats are the party of the special interests. The people of WA in general are of little interest to democrats. The democrats work hard to make WA government inefficient and bloatedly expensive, while the citizens deserve instead an efficient and affordable government. Republicans are the only party that actually understood that 2/3 to raise taxes passed in EVERY county last time it was on the ballot just over a year ago. Democrats ignored the people completely on that issue, preferring to raise taxes to line the pockets of their special-interest donors.
Just a crock of hogwash! Full of unsupported lies from conservative rumor mills.
Why are the democrats constantly trying to raise taxes if it’s ‘hogwash’? That’s all they ever try to do. If you don’t realize that, you’re not paying attention.
Democrats try to raise taxes to pay for our government.
You get what you pay for.
Democrats want good government and we are willing to pay for good government.
Republicans are a party of rich freeloaders. America’s wealthy elite want to take advantage of a weak government to increase their profits and make it easier for them to prey on working Americans. And they want working Americans to pay for the government they abuse.
It would be nice if we got what we pay for, but we don’t even get that. Democrats put in rules like prevailing wage to insure the citizens don’t get the infrastructure they paid for, and they tax spending on roads in So the taxpayers get less for their $$. If Democrats are so sincere about wanting good government, then Detroit may be sadly descriptive about what their ‘dream’ government looks like. They’ve run the place for decades, and not for the benefit of the people but for the benefit of the politicians and overpromising to those who work for it, b/c the dem pols liked all the campaign donations they got from them.
Those ‘rich freeloaders’ you claim exist (democrat talking points that don’t even make sense) are the ones paying all the taxes, which is why a recent CBO report showed that when it comes to individual income taxes, the top 40% pay 109% of the total tax bill. The bottom 40% pay -9%. That’s NEGATIVE 9 percent. The middle 20%: less than 3%.
Time to scrap your democrat talking points, which are based on fabrications designed to completely mislead with propaganda based on thin air.
http://www.cnbc.com/id/101264757 The ‘rich’ are paying ‘more’ than 100% of the taxes, as reported by CBO and this CNBC report
..and when it comes to individual income taxes, democrats are NOT willing to pay more; they are willing for OTHER people to pay more in taxes. See the CBO report once more for proof….
That CBO report doesn’t prove your claims
And speaking of democrats willing to pay more in taxes, we all remember well all the Obama cabinet nominees, uber-wealthy democrats who were found time and again to have unpaid owed taxes in eye-popping amounts$$. They weren’t willing to pay until they got caught…
Of course there have never been any wealthy republican tax dodgers?
Taxes on the wealthy elite have never been lower than they are right now. Even Reagan raised taxes.
Republicans are rich freeloaders that want to “starve the beast”. They want working Americans to pay for government. If you don’t like government, how can you govern?
CNBC cherry picked the data from the CBO report.
And don’t forget that Federal income taxes are only part of the total tax obligations of working Americans.
The tax increase was after a huge Tax cut that Reagan got passed. It was a tiny change. But remember he had a Democrat Congress he had to work with that were considered big spenders. Reagan wanted to limit the growth of government to 3 to 5% but the Democrats grew the budget 7 to 12% depending on the department.
The government doesn’t need to be funded by taxes. We could fund government through direct spending of issued currency rather than giving it to the Federal Reserve, which is a privately owned for profit institution, and borrowing USD back from the Federal Reserve for their profit.
Raising taxes is far more properly conceived of as controlling the rich- keeping them from buying the system for their profit resulting is a kind of serfdom for the majority of people..
..and thank goodness the republican-dominated senate majority told the Dems last go-around “no, we will NOT raise taxes as you say you want to; we will live within our means and create a spending plan that does not include tax increases, b/c the people don’t want tax increases; their vote on 2/3 says they don’t like them.
Typical leftist. Never present a fact, just name call and deny reality. A product of public education, never had to write or term paper, of if you did your leftist teach gave it an A because on the Thesis and not any supporting documentation. How sad for the nation. Care to comment on Soros money? Of course you don’t.
see above
Sorry but Democrat party on the National level is a Socialist party. And yes there are Republicans that support Socialist polices. Freedom of the individual removed as good for all is considered the rule of the day. When Democrats use the term the Constitution is a living document they can change the meaning without changing the Constitution equates to considering the Founding Fathers ideas of Government is too limiting to their desire to increase power of the Federal government. The founders put limits on the Federal government which have been removed over the past century. Now they can make a move to remove all protections of the constitution in the name of the what ever the special interests consider good to tell others how to live their life. the current recession is worse than any others by the policies used for the recession on the Federal and State level. Government is the problem. The democrats no longer have Statesmen that care about the American People instead it all about Power.
Those dern commies….how dare they value work over rich people’s ownership of stuff.
What we need is to eliminate the minimum wage and work place rules so that the rich can raise pay for work and treat workers the way they deserve.
LMFAO. You are so far to the right you believe Democrats are socialist?! They are EVERY bit as corporatist and sold-off to the Oligarchy as the Republicans. Both parties of the duopoly are pathetic puppets of their Corporate puppetmasters. Your ingnorance and particular brand of Identity politics is laughable.
Sorry but when you make a comment like that it shows you are a socialist. Just as destructive as socialists have been in Venezuela. The socialists destroyed the middle class. But those in power have all the money the poor and middle class are now nearly at the same level. When the government runs out of food they take it from the business that still had food to sell. GOvernment is good at stealing others life work.
Hey, no one is stopping con-servatives from putting Soros in his place by eliminating money from politics and raising taxes on the rich to the extent that they can’t possibly use money/wealth to influence politics on a large scale.
Keep selling out the rich. It can’t be anything but good.
You are wrong. He’s a typical Centrist who mistakenly believes he is progressive. Most Democrats are corporate centrists.
There is no significant difference between the parties regarding special interests. They are both as corporatist as they can be.
Republicans spent at least a billion dollars trying to get Mitt Momoney elected.
You lose, suckers.
Money won’t buy you love.
Republicans spent at least a billion dollars trying to get Mitt Momoney elected.
You lose, suckers.
Money won’t buy you love.
HERE ARE THE FACTS, FOLKS:
A political network linked to conservative billionaires Charles and David Koch raised at least $407 million in the last election, almost matching Mitt Romney’s campaign funds. By comparison, the Koch network raised more than George W. Bush did in 2004, and outdid both presidential candidates in 2000.
According to an analysis from the Washington Post and Center for Responsive Politics, the labyrinth of 17 tax-exempt Koch groups shielded wealthy individuals from disclosing their donations, including the exact amount the two billionaires contribute. A vast amount came through two main groups with ties to Koch officials, which fed $302 million to a wider network — Americans for Prosperity, Club for Growth, the American Energy Alliance, Heritage Action, among others.
The Koch network just about beat most campaign funding for the 2012 election, toppling Karl Rove’s $325 million super PAC. It unsurprisingly dwarfed older elections and small donors, too:
$407 million is the “conservative estimate,” because eight groups haven’t yet filed their returns. Nonetheless, the Koch network met their pledge before the 2012 election to spend at least $400 million to defeat the presidential incumbent. These funds represent a small fraction of the Koch brothers’ estimated $72 billion wealth.
Through this network, groups like Americans for Prosperity and other Koch affiliates fund campaigns to undermine Obamacare, the minimum wage, and clean energy and the environment. Ahead of the 2014 congressional midterms, AFP is already spending $2.5 million on ads attacking the health care law.
THAT’S $732 MILLION FOR LIES POUNDED INTO THE FEEBLE BRAINS OF CLUELESS REPUBLICAN FOOT SOLDIERS. WHAT A WASTE!
HERE ARE THE FACTS, FOLKS:
A political network linked to conservative billionaires Charles and David Koch raised at least $407 million in the last election, almost matching Mitt Romney’s campaign funds. By comparison, the Koch network raised more than George W. Bush did in 2004, and outdid both presidential candidates in 2000.
According to an analysis from the Washington Post and Center for Responsive Politics, the labyrinth of 17 tax-exempt Koch groups shielded wealthy individuals from disclosing their donations, including the exact amount the two billionaires contribute. A vast amount came through two main groups with ties to Koch officials, which fed $302 million to a wider network — Americans for Prosperity, Club for Growth, the American Energy Alliance, Heritage Action, among others.
The Koch network just about beat most campaign funding for the 2012 election, toppling Karl Rove’s $325 million super PAC. It unsurprisingly dwarfed older elections and small donors, too:
$407 million is the “conservative estimate,” because eight groups haven’t yet filed their returns. Nonetheless, the Koch network met their pledge before the 2012 election to spend at least $400 million to defeat the presidential incumbent. These funds represent a small fraction of the Koch brothers’ estimated $72 billion wealth.
Through this network, groups like Americans for Prosperity and other Koch affiliates fund campaigns to undermine Obamacare, the minimum wage, and clean energy and the environment. Ahead of the 2014 congressional midterms, AFP is already spending $2.5 million on ads attacking the health care law.
THAT’S $732 MILLION FOR LIES POUNDED INTO THE FEEBLE BRAINS OF CLUELESS REPUBLICAN FOOT SOLDIERS. WHAT A WASTE!
It is the other way around. Democrats are the party of liars and Christian haters.
You’re dead wrong, yaki.
Democrats are Christians too.
Do you have a persecution complex?
It is the other way around. Democrats are the party of liars and Christian haters.
You’re dead wrong, yaki.
Democrats are Christians too.
Do you have a persecution complex?
Wait..so the liberal agenda is fundamentally about tax cuts for the rich, deregulations which predominately favor the rich, privitizations which favor the rich, social policies which favor the rich, etc….
You have to realize, any pro-rich agenda the liberal side is due to infiltration from non-liberals.
America is suffering from pollution by republicons and republicon lite. Now, with trumpski’s moron parade, we suffer from double republicons as well.