Democratic and Republican leadership in both the House and Senate have named 43 individuals to a conference committee tasked with hammering out the final version of the Congress’ financial regulatory reform legislation.
These members comprise just 8 percent of Congress, but the group has been far more likely to benefit from Wall Street’s cash.
Out of every $100 that Wall Street interests have contributed to sitting members of Congress over the years, $16 has gone to a member of the financial reform conference committee, the Center for Responsive Politics has found.
Since 1989, all political action committees and individual employees of companies classified by the Center as part of the finance, insurance and real estate sector (FIRE) have contributed more than $695 million to the campaign committees and leadership PACs of current members of the 111th Congress.
More than $112 million from these interests has benefited the Democrats and Republicans named to the conference committee, which will reconcile differences between the Wall Street reform measures passed by the House and Senate.
Among specific interest groups within the FIRE sector, commercial banks were found to have given about $18 to a member of the conference committee out of every $100 donated to all current members of Congress.
Securities and investment interests have given $1 out of every $5 to a member of the conference committee, the Center for Responsive Politics found.
And people and political action committees associated with credit and finance companies have given nearly $1 out of every $4 donated to members of the conference committee.
| Total Congress |
Only Conferees |
% Conferees |
|
|---|---|---|---|
| FIRE Sector | $695,005,130 | $112,333,737 | 16% |
| Real Estate | $175,105,723 | $21,492,789 | 12% |
| Insurance | $117,396,301 | $18,630,940 | 16% |
| Commercial Banks | $82,035,049 | $14,685,940 | 18% |
| Securities & Investment | $163,628,474 | $32,252,759 | 20% |
| Credit & Finance | $25,191,341 | $5,739,911 | 23% |
The median amount of contributions from Wall Street interests received by the committee’s 16 House and Senate Republicans ($1.75 million) is 81 percent larger than the median amount received by the committee’s 27 Democrats ($969,600) — although the parties have received nearly the same amount when one compares averages.
The conferees who have received the most from the FIRE sector since 1989 are Sens. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd (D-Conn.). Schumer has received more than $17.5 million, while Dodd has received more than $15.1 million.
The next highest recipient of contributions from Wall Street interests has received less than half as much as either Schumer or Dodd. Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.), the ranking Republican member of the Senate Banking Committee, has collected more than $7.5 million.
The eight-figure sums collected by Schumer and Dodd increase the Democrats’ average as a whole.
Thanks in large part to their hauls from Wall Street, Senate Democrats on the conference committee have received an average of 72 percent more from the FIRE sector than Senate Republican on the conference committee.
When comparing medians, Senate Republicans named to the conference committee have received 3 percent more than their Democratic counterparts.
Among House members named to the conference committee, Republicans have collected more from Wall Street interests, when comparing both the median and average amounts.
The median amount received from the FIRE sector by House Republicans on the conference committee is double the Democratic median.
And the average haul from Wall Street interests by House Republicans on the conference committee is 60 percent large than the average among Democrats on the committee.
| Comparison | % Increase |
|---|---|
| Median Senate GOP v. Median Senate Dem | 3% |
| Average Senate Dem v. Average Senate GOP | 72% |
| Median House GOP v. Median House Dem | 103% |
| Average House GOP v. Average House Dem | 60% |
| Median All GOP v. Median All Dems | 81% |
| Average All Dems v. Average All GOP | 2% |
For more detailed information about the summary figures, and the breakdown of all FIRE contributions to the 43 members of the conference committee, you can download a spreadsheet of the data here: FinReg Money.xls
(If you use this information, please be sure to credit the Center for Responsive Politics.)
You can also see the FIRE contributions to all members of the 111th Congress here as part of the financial tools available in our “Crossing Wall Street” series.
Source: Center for Responsive Politics and OpenSecrets.org
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Former Congressman Says Obama A ‘Threat’ And Must Be Impeached
Jul 26
Posted by admin in Abuse of Power, Commentary, Impeachments, News, Opinion | 2 Comments
By Bob Unruh
We have a man in White House who brazenly disregards his oath of office
A former congressman and GOP presidential candidate says for current members of the House and Senate to uphold their oath of office that includes the defense of the United States against enemies “foreign and domestic,” they need to be filing impeachment charges against Barack Obama.
Former U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., joined what has become a growing surge of those recommending the ultimate solution for a president they believe not only has disagreeable policies, but is participating in actions that damage the nation.
The ultimate guide to Obama’s radical agenda – and how to stop it!
Tancredo is not the first to raise the idea of impeachment against Obama, who has implemented legislation and policies effectively nationalizing financial institutions, automobile companies, health care and many other previously private interests.
In fact, he was not even the only person on this particular day. Times columnist Jeffrey T. Kuhner, who also is president of the Edmund Burke Institute, wrote at the same time, “President Obama has engaged in numerous high crimes and misdemeanors. The Democratic majority in Congress is in peril as Americans reject his agenda. Yet more must be done: Mr. Obama should be impeached.”
Kuhner continued, “He is slowly – piece by painful piece – erecting a socialist dictatorship. We are not there – yet. But he is putting America on that dangerous path. He is undermining our constitutional system of checks and balances; subverting democratic procedures and the rule of law; presiding over a corrupt, gangster regime; and assaulting the very pillars of traditional capitalism. Like Venezuela’s leftist strongman, Hugo Chavez, Mr. Obama is bent on imposing a revolution from above – one that is polarizing America along racial, political and ideological lines. Mr. Obama is the most divisive president since Richard Nixon. His policies are Balkanizing the country. It’s time for him to go.”
Tancredo’s arguments aren’t complicated. During his brief presidential run in 2008 he focused on the border security issue of the United States, and he still is concerned that the failure to secure the U.S. boundary – especially with Mexico – will lead to tragic consequences at the hands of border-crossing terrorists.
Tancredo appeared on Fox News today to defend his position from skeptics, saying Obama’s responsibility is to protect and defend the Constitution and the United States, not “fundamentally transform” them.
“He is more dangerous simply because he is inside,” he said. “Few people took him seriously about fundamentally transforming America. That is what he is all about. That is what he has set about doing. He is a committed ideologue. When you have someone like that in the White House, it is a scary proposition.”
He cited the president’s lack of action to adequately secure the border with Mexico.
“He’s putting his country in danger,” Tancredo said. “The country the Founders put together, that’s what’s in jeopardy.”
“Barack Obama is one of the most powerful presidents this nation has seen in generations. He is powerful because he is supported by large majorities in Congress, but, more importantly, because he does not feel constrained by the rule of law. Whether he is putting up the weakest possible defense of the Defense of Marriage Act despite the Justice Department’s legal obligation to support existing law; disenfranchising Chrysler and GM bondholders in order to transfer billions of investor dollars to his supporters in the United Auto Workers; or implementing yet a third offshore oil-drilling moratorium even after two federal courts have thrown out two previous moratoriums, President Obama is determined to see things done his way regardless of obstacles,” Tancredo wrote in his op-ed.
“To Mr. Obama, the rule of law is a mere inconvenience to be ignored, overcome or ‘transcended’ through international agreements or ‘norms.’”
Tancredo wrote that the “dedicated Marxist who lives in the White House” holds power over budgets, the judiciary, national defense and health care. As such, “his regime and his program are not just about changing public policy in the conventional sense. When one considers the combination of his stop-at-nothing attitude, his contempt for limited government, his appointment of judges who want to create law rather than interpret it – all of these make this president today’s single greatest threat to the great experiment in freedom that is our republic.
“Yes, Mr. Obama is a more serious threat to America than al-Qaida. We know that Osama bin Laden and followers want to kill us, but at least they are an outside force against whom we can offer our best defense. But when a dedicated enemy of the Constitution is working from the inside, we face a far more dangerous threat. Mr. Obama can accomplish with the stroke of his pen what bin Laden cannot accomplish with bombs and insurgents.”
Tancredo, who served five terms representing Colorado and now is chairman of the Rocky Mountain Foundation, was joined by Kuhner, who accused Obama of abusing his office and violating his oath.
Kuhner cited Obama’s demand that all Americans buy health insurance.
“The federal government does not have the right to coerce every citizen to purchase a good or service. This is not in the Constitution, and it represents an unprecedented expansion of power,” he wrote. “Yet Obamacare’s most pernicious aspect is its federal funding of abortion. Pro-lifers are now compelled to have their tax dollars used to subsidize insurance plans that allow for the murder of unborn children. This is more than state-sanctioned infanticide. It violates the conscience rights of religious citizens.”
He further cited Obama’s actions regarding the BP oil spill.
“There is a legal process for claims to be adjudicated, but Mr. Obama has behaved more like Mr. Chavez or Russia’s Vladimir Putin: He has bullied BP into setting up a $20 billion compensation fund administered by an Obama appointee. In other words, the assets of a private company are to be raided to serve a political agenda.”
He also wrote about the takeovers in the auto and financial industries, and the New Black Panther case.
“Under Mr. Obama, the Constitution has become a meaningless scrap of paper,” he said. “As president, he is supposed to respect the rule of law. Instead, his administration has dropped charges of voter intimidation against members of the New Black Panther Party. This was done even though their menacing behavior was caught on tape: men in military garb brandishing clubs and threatening whites at a polling site.”
Tancredo nearly two months ago broached the subject of impeachment, suggesting an “impeachment file.”
“I believe there is a growing body of evidence of impeachable offenses sufficient to warrant a formal impeachment resolution in the House, followed by a trial in the Senate,” he wrote at the time.
And the suggestion even has come from onlookers at a presidential appearance. CNN has documented when Obama made a surprise visit to a crowd on a shuttle bus, one onlooker shouted, “When are you going to quit. When are you going to be impeached?”
The issue even has appeared among online gamers, when Microsoft told an Xbox user the signon name “Impeach Obama” was not allowed because, “If you were President Obama, how would you feel if someone wanted to impeach you?”
Floyd and Mary Beth Brown, in a column on WND, discussed the ImpeachObamaCampaign.com that they launched.
They reported that many, instead of examining the evidence, attacked the messengers.
“We expected these attacks,” they reported. But they said the unresolved issues include:
Vallely, who served in Vietnam and retired in 1991 from the U.S. Army as deputy commanding general for the Pacific, said, “We now must call for the immediate resignation of Barry Soetero (AKA President Barack Hussein Obama) … based on incompetence, deceit, fraud, corruption, dishonesty and violation of the U.S. oath of office and the Constitution.”
“We can wait no longer for a traditional change of power and new government,” he has warned.
“‘We the People’ have had enough. Enough is enough. The Obama White House and identifiable members of Congress are now on a progressive socialist, treasonous death march and are bankrupting and weakening the country. We have watched them violate their sacred oath of office. ‘We, the People’ cannot wait for and solely rely on the next round of elections in November of this year. It is now and each day that these public servants must put the citizen’s interests above self-interest by resigning immediately,” he said.
Peter Ferrara, on the American Spectator website, also has predicted Obama’s resignation.
“I am now ready to predict that President Obama will not even make it [to 2012],” he wrote. “I predict that he will resign in discredited disgrace before the fall of 2012,” Ferrera said.
Opinion by ImpeachCongress: Fellow Americans, we are at a crossroads here in America. We either stand up for our country as the founding fathers bequeathed it to us or we roll over and give up our Liberty. It is our choice. There are “designing men” as George Washington put it that want to destroy the very Liberty that America stands for and our forefathers fought for to further their own personal power.
We are a nation of free individuals. We cannot succumb to the progressive onslaught on our freedom. We must stand up, united, against the tyranny of the federal government and send the message this November that the progressive liberals in Congress are done. Once Constitutional Conservatives have gained control of both Houses we must begin to dismantle the past 110 years of progressive influence on our Country.
The first order of business will be to either impeach Obama or force his resignation followed by the criminal trials he so deserves. Second, we bring impeachment proceedings against any remaining Representatives and Senators, that were not voted out in November, that have been complicit in this great fraud on the American People. And, finally, we begin the arduous task of undoing the mess of laws and bureaucracies that have strangled our Liberty for one hundred years. Close the department of education and the IRS. Repeal the internal revenue code and replace it with a fair and simple flat tax. Put education back into the hands of State and Local government. Repeal the seventeenth amendment and scale federal government back to the seventeen enumerated powers granted it in the Constitution. We must unite around these principals and take back our country!
Tags: congress, ferrara, impeach, impeached, impeachment, oath of office, obama, tancredo, vallely