WASHINGTON — Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama, who are running for president as economic populists, are benefiting handsomely from Wall Street donations, easily surpassing Republican John McCain in campaign contributions from the troubled financial services sector.
It is part of a broader fundraising shift toward Democrats, compared to past campaigns when Republicans were the favorites of Wall Street.
Some Democrats worry that the influx of money will make their candidates less willing to call for increased regulation of financial markets, which have been in turmoil after a wave of foreclosures on sub-prime mortgages.
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"I want to hear Clinton, Obama and McCain talk about a quid pro quo," said Jared Bernstein, an economist with the Democratic-leaning Economic Policy Institute. "If we don't hear it, especially from Democrats, it makes sense to ask why not and ask if they are inappropriately cozy with the financial services industry."
The flow of campaign cash is a measure of how open-fisted banks and other financial institutions have been to politicians of both parties. Concern is rising that "no matter who the Democratic nominee is and who wins in November, Wall Street will have a friend in the White House," said Massie Ritsch of the nonprofit Center for Responsive Politics, which tracks campaign donations. "The door will be open to these big banks."
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Here.
We have been reading and hearing about this since 2009, nothing new in their special. Still, one can't say nothing was done, and Holder didn't send trillions of dollars back to to Wall Street for their use, making sure the banks do well while 47 million are on food stamps and we are still yanking 50,000 people out of their homes every month in completed foreclosures.
He's just one of the people who think well-fed bankers and mortgage brokers are more important than standing up for hungry children, keeping seniors out of poverty, investing in education for adults, or standing in front of our most vulnerable as a barrier to predatory capitalism.
That is, unless one thinks the $40 billion we are paying every month to wealthy people so they don't lose money on their mortgage-backed securities while people are being dragged from the homes they worked for benefits anyone except the bankers. Or perhaps they see the trillions we let the banks capture through the use of free taxpayer money, wealth that taxpayers had to labor to produce, only to see it turned against them, adding to the millions families we see as "working poor", as a better use for the money than providing opportunity.
FDR didn't put forward the policies that made life better for people until tens of thousands marched in the streets, people with nothing else parading past the White House and lines of police, and hungry children were walked out of school by their teachers to ask for a food program.
Modern people have far more in resources to make things happen for themselves anytime they want to get off the this merry-go-round. They have the power. They just need to quit making excuses for people who call themselves "friends" and organize.
The Unemployed Councils, after decades of other organizing efforts, put people on the streets to demand what they wanted. Maybe we need to learn from the Communist Party again to show us how to cooperate and get loose from Wall Street, quit giving them so much. CP really pushed for an 8 hour day and unemployment, btw.
We would probably murder, jail, and hang the people on our side again, if history is any indication, so the incentive structure is going to need a little work. But nothing is going to change as long as people think they are going to get a solution from the FOB. (Friends of Banksters).
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