McCain's Corporate Welfare

Cartoon by Mark Hurwitt (website, email) from the September 13, 2007 Black Commentator.


June 26, 2008m the Center for American Progress detailed how Senator John McCain’s proposed $45 billion in tax cuts to the 200 largest U.S. companies would double the Bush cuts. And of those, eight would each receive over $1 billion a year: Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Exxon Mobil Corp., ConocoPhillips Co., Bank ƒƒof America Corp., AT&T, Berkshire Hathaway Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co., and Microsoft Corp.

So, I wasn't surprised to read Michael O'Brien's August 15 piece in The Hill, "Top CEOs give 10 times more to McCain than to Obama."

The presumptive GOP nominee has received $208,200 from the chief executive officers of the 100 biggest Fortune 500 corporations, according to a review of campaign finance reports. Obama has taken in $20,400 from the same group of people.

Of the top eight, only Berkshire Hathaway's CEO Warren Buffet has given exclusively to Obama. And what's interesting is how much the giving gap between the parties has grown.

In 2004, the difference between the Republican and the Democratic candidates was much less pronounced in terms of Fortune 100 donations. Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) nearly kept pace with President Bush.

Among the same 100 individuals, the vast majority of whom were in their current positions in 2004, Kerry raised nearly three-quarters of what Bush did. Kerry brought in $74,500 from the business leaders, while Bush raised $103,200.

Also interesting is that while

42 of the CEOs donated to ..[the 2004 Bush] campaign; only 29 have donated to McCain — the president’s would-be Republican successor has managed to bring in more than twice as much than Bush did.

That uptick has been largely due to the fact that several donors have contributed large additional sums to McCain’s Victory 2008 political action committee (PAC).