Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Heavy Hitters

OpenSecrets.org provides us with the top 101 All-Time Donors in American Politics from 1989 to 2008:


The most interesting ones to me are the NAR at #3 and AT&T at #1, as nobody else is particularly surprising. Notice that both split between the two parties pretty evenly. I can't help but wonder how NAR's lobbying efforts relates to the housing bubble (Freddie Mac weighs in at #75 on the party fence). I assume AT&T was still recoiling from the Bell System Break up in 1984.

Hat-Tip: Jason Oberle, who passes along the data in a spreadsheet.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

The hard questions:

How many jobs may have been created by the “101 Heavy Hitters” listed in this report had the more than $79 million allocated to lobbying during each year been allocated to any other resource?

How many new innovations may have occurred in the U.S. economy from the investment of the same money by the 101 firms in any other activities?

Does all of this money going to politicians in our nation’s capital reduce our ability as citizens to effectively communicate our desires for the future of America to our politicians? (inspired by Robert Reich, Supercapitalism)