Intro: "Have you heard of William Dore, Foster Friess, Sheldon Adelson, Harold Simmons, Peter Thiel, or Bruce Kovner? If not, let me introduce them to you. They're running for the Republican nomination for president. I know, I know. You think Rick Santorum, Newt Gingrich, Ron Paul, and Mitt Romney are running. They are - but only because the people listed in the first paragraph have given them huge sums of money to do so."
Portrait, Robert Reich, 08/16/09. (photo: Perian Flaherty)
The GOP's Big Investors
22 February 12
ave you heard of William Dore, Foster Friess, Sheldon Adelson, Harold Simmons, Peter Thiel, or Bruce Kovner? If not, let me introduce them to you. They're running for the Republican nomination for president.
I know, I know. You think Rick Santorum, Newt Gingrich, Ron Paul, and Mitt Romney are running. They are - but only because the people listed in the first paragraph have given them huge sums of money to do so. In a sense, Santorum, Gingrich, Paul, and Romney are the fronts. Dore et al. are the real investors.
According to January's Federal Election Commission report, William Dore and Foster Friess supplied more than three-fourths of the $2.1 million raked in by Rick Santorum's super PAC in January. Dore, president of the Dore Energy Corporation in Lake Charles, Louisiana, gave $1 million; Freis, a fund manager based in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, gave $669,000 (he had given the Santorum super PAC $331,000 last year, bringing Freis's total to $1 million).
Sheldon Adelson and his wife Miriam provided $10 million of the $11 million that went into Gingrich's super PAC in January. Adelson is chairman of the Las Vegas Sands Corporation. Texas billionaire Harold Simmons donated $500,000.
Peter Thiel, co-founder of PayPal, provided $1.7 million of the $2.4 million raised by Ron Paul's super PAC in January.
Mitt Romney's super PAC raised $6.6 million last month - almost all from just forty donors. Bruce Kovner, co-founder of the New York-based hedge fund Caxton Associates, gave $500,000, as did two others. David Tepper of Appaloosa Management gave $375,000. J.W. Marriott and Richard Marriott gave a total of $500,000. Julian Robertson, co-founder of hedge fund Tiger Management, gave $250,0000. Hewlett-Packard CEO Meg Whitman gave $100,000.
Bottom line: Whoever emerges as the GOP standard-bearer will be deeply indebted to a handful of people, each of whom will expect a good return on their investment.
And this is just the beginning. We haven't even come to the general election.
Non-profit political fronts like "Crossroads GPS," founded by Republican political guru Karl Rove, are already gathering hundreds of millions of dollars from big corporations and a few wealthy individuals like billionaire oil and petrochemical moguls David and Charles Koch. The public will never know who or what corporation gave what because, under IRS regulations, such non-profit "social welfare organizations" aren't required to disclose the names of those who contributed to them.
Before 2010, federal campaign law and Federal Election Commission regulations limited to $5,000 per year the amount an individual could give to a PAC making independent expenditures in federal elections. This individual contribution limit that was declared unconstitutional by the District of Columbia Court of Appeals in a case based on the Supreme Court's grotesque decision at the start of 2010, Citizens United vs. Federal Election Commission.
Now, the limits are gone. And this comes precisely at a time when an almost unprecedented share of the nation's income and wealth is accumulating at the top.
Never before in the history of our Republic have so few spent so much to influence the votes of so many.
Robert Reich is Chancellor's Professor of Public Policy at the University of California at Berkeley. He has served in three national administrations, most recently as secretary of labor under President Bill Clinton. He has written thirteen books, including "The Work of Nations," "Locked in the Cabinet," "Supercapitalism" and his latest book, "AFTERSHOCK: The Next Economy and America's Future." His 'Marketplace' commentaries can be found on publicradio.com and iTunes.
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Comments
We are concerned about a recent drift towards vitriol in the RSN Reader comments section. There is a fine line between moderation and censorship. No one likes a harsh or confrontational forum atmosphere. At the same time everyone wants to be able to express themselves freely. We'll start by encouraging good judgment. If that doesn't work we'll have to ramp up the moderation.
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Thanks, Robert, for yet another step forward in helping we the sheeple to take off the blinders, get into logic/common sense/critical thinking mode, and thereby get ready to up our courage and determination to.....
UNDO THE COUP!!!
How much is Obama getting from the banker cartel from the green energy special interest groups? From the Unions?
Solyndra and other debacles - funded by tax payers so OBombya can buy re-election - one he does not deserve.
Thank God we have term limits else Reagan would still be president.
But to bigger issues and not lame evasions
How much is Obama getting from the Bankers? ... Where did his high level advisors come from - where did they go . Those questions were equally fair game when Bush was in office.
The stupid people are the useful idiots for the 1% who keep the 99% infighting while the 1% (who are both republicans and democrats) stay in power because useful idiots on both 'sides' blindly ignore their parties crimes but scream to high heaven about the same crimes when the other party does it.
It is not left vs right
- it is freedom Vs Tyranny.
Still, who are "Bruno and Knuckles"? Are they caricatures? If so, could you be more specific? What sorts of people are they meant to be a caricature of?
Mr. Reich, thank you for your relentless pursuit of fairness in your many incisive columns and blog posts.
The 1% is both republican and democrat.
While the 99% fight over false left/right labels we stay divided and miss the larger issue that it is
freedom vs tyranny.
F.D.Roosevelt in a message to Congress (1938):
"The liberty of a democracy is in danger if the people tolerate the growth of
private powers...
(corporations,
Sheldon Adelson,
AIPAC)...
to a point where it becomes stronger
than the democratic state itself.
That, in it´s essence is fascism"
GET MONEY OUT OF POLITICS!
One wonders if Reich will look at Obama contributors with the same jaundiced eye now that Obama has announced he will be using super-pacs to help him....
Lee Nason
New Bedford, Massachusetts
Good point.
It all removes the world of "who gets and who pays" farther and yet farther from the rest of we the many-headed (and cannon-fodder, if you like).
Granny D. must be revolving in her casket!
SHOULD WE RESPOND TO THE TROLLS?
The argument for it is that, without responding, we send the message that we have no answer to their comments.
The argument against it seems to be that, by engaging them we're giving them attention and helping them to distract us.
If you think we should ignore them, please give this comment a thumbs down. If you think we should take them on, please give this comment a thumbs up. Sorry to act like a teenager on youtube about this, but it's the only way I can think of to see what most of you think.
By the way, where do we draw the line? Whose comments aren't worth a response and whose are?
Trolls, by definition,almo st, are those who are not prepared to discuss an issue seriously and just want to disrupt discussion or drop little brown pellets and talking points.
Often enough I have collected information and thughts on some issue which I wanted to share, but thought it out of place to arbitrarily broach the subject. Trolls can provide a good reason for posting, however, which not only spreads good information but often sends the trolls scurrying for cover rather than standing in the light of truth and sunlight, revealed for their lies and fallacies.
Of course, some people, prehaps mistaken for trolls or crazies, are merely badly misinformed or stricken by faulty thinking or misunderstandin g, and these people will often consider the truth, backed up by references, and may well change their minds -- as may others who read what is posted. Thus, the truth emerges over time as people get more information and understanding, and that is perhaps the major goal of a site like this one.
What if the troll brings up an obvious bit of right-wing propaganda which, on its surface, seems pretty reasonable? Do we ignore them, and let the lie go unchallenged, or do we challenge it, acknowledging that we won't convert the troll himself, but at least we'll show the propaganda for what it is?
Please understand, I'm not trying to stifle your comment. I'm seriously weighing this. Many other posters, who I respect, disagree with me sharply on this and I want to know if I should continue or if I'm doing more damage than good.
Often, I make a comment that I find particularly useful, only to have it censored by the moderators. The censored comments are usually directed at trolls. I'm assuming this is further proof that not everyone agrees with me.
*** RSN MODERATOR'S NOTE ***
We encourage discussions of and from all points of view, but we do ask that they be kept civil.
If comments are submitted in the form of a personal attack, include name-calling, slander, petty insults, etc., they will not be approved.
I was the biggest Obama-supporter in the world in 2008 and feel totally
frustrated and disappointed by him now.
You just need to mention:
Nobels Peace Prize,
Guantanamo,
treatment of Bradling Manning,
violation of 1st Amendment against 99%,
and so on,and so on
and just because the GOPs are a bunch
of nutcases, how can you easily give up
your principles saying that everything
else than the GOPs is better.
Obama has not deserved a second term
and how will you explain to your grand-
children that you voted for a guy who
betrayed all principles including the
RSN article about shrimps without eyes
letting BP get of the hook.
At the climate conference in Durban,
US could only agree to have another
conference in 2020, eight years too late.
Maybe the American people will not
wake up before we have had 8 years
with one of the awful alternatives.
Maybe we need to go down the drain
before the American people wake up.
How sad America has become.
WAKE UP FOR CHRIST SAKE!
.....and your choice would be....?
will probably be
not voting - occupying !
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