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Money in politics

Tuesday 24th of March 2026

Money in politics A 2015 Times report found that at that point fewer than 400 families accounted for almost half the money raised in the 2016 presidential campaign. Paul Krugman, New York Times, July 5, 2020 © 2020 Kwiple.com
Money in politics Among Americans overall, roughly 18 percent make political donations,  usually in amounts between $25 and $100. Forty percent of all political donations come from the top 1 percent of the 1 percent. Jaime Lowe, New York Times Magazine, April 7, 2022 © 2022 Kwiple.com
Money in politics Anonymity, donor anonymity, is essential [to big donors to the Republican Party]. Voters may hate big anonymous donors,  but big anonymous donors need anonymity. The term for this anonymous funding, now pouring by the billions into our politics, is dark money. This [operation to capture the Supreme Court] is a dark money operation. And if you are out to capture a court, you want to be sure the court will protect your dark money, your camouflage for all your covert operations. Sheldon Whitehouse, July 13, 2021 © 2021 Kwiple.com
Money in politics Anybody that makes a “Contribution” to Birdbrain, from this moment forth, will be permanently barred from the MAGA camp. Donald Trump, Jan 24, 2024, 8:49 PM [By “Birdbrain,” Trump means Nikki Haley, not himself or his spawn. “MAGA camp” is a nationwide day camp where disinformed adults frolic and wallow.] © 2024 Kwiple.com
Money in politics As a businessman and a very substantial donor to very important people, when you give, they do whatever the hell you want them to do. As a businessman, I need that. Donald Trump, justifying hiis donating to politicians to reap benefits from paying-to-play Wall Street Journal, August 25, 2016 © 2016 Kwiple.com
Money in politics The Best Way to Vilify Clinton? G.O.P. Spends Heavily to Find It headline, New York Times, July 12, 2015, article about hundreds of millions of dollars Karl Rove's super-PAC, American Crossroads, and other Republican groups are spending developing and field testing attack ads smearing Clinton and her character © 2015 Kwiple.com
Money in politics The disappearance of labor's countervailing power can readily be seen in the 2015-16 election cycle, when corporations and Wall Street contributed $34 to candidates from both parties for every $1 donated by unions and all public interest organizations combined. [34:1] Business outspent labor $3.4 billion to $213 million. [16:1] All of the nation's unions together spend about $48 million annually on lobbying in Washington. Corporate America spends $3 billion. [62:1] Robert B. Reich, The System © 2021 Kwiple.com
Money in politics Drop a rock in a stream and the stream flows around it. Put eager candidates and enormous interested spenders together, and trouble will follow, as it has. Look no further than the corruption of American politics on climate change by the fossil fuel industry. Sheldon Whitehouse © 2021 Kwiple.com
Money in politics Former top national security advisors side with tech companies in disputes with government over privacy rights AFTER quitting government to work for the tech companies, which pay way more than government © 2016 Kwiple.com
Money in politics Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob. Franklin Delano Roosevelt © 2021 Kwiple.com
Money in politics He [Trump] made Gary Cohn, the former president of Goldman Sachs, his top economic advisor. On his way out of Goldman, Cohn received the promise of a staggering $285 million from the firm. Nice, but the money came with a catch: Cohn wouldn't get the big bucks if he  joined the Red Cross or started teaching in a rural elementary school or just retired. Nope: he could only collect this boatload of money if he left the firm to work in the White House. Elizabeth Warren, Persist © 2021 Kwiple.com
Money in politics House members in competitive races have raised, on average, $2.6 million for the 2014 midterm. That amounts to $3,600 raised a day — seven days a week, 52 weeks a year. Surveys show that members spend up to 70 percent of their time fund- raising during an election year. Two years later, they'll have to do it all again. David Schanzer and Jay Sullivan, New York Times, November 3, 2014 © 2015 Kwiple.com
Money in politics I don’t waste my time on stories that involve money and politics because what I care about is ideas. Leonard Leo, recipient of a $1.6 billion donation from Chicago billionaire Barre Seid to spend on getting conservatives who are committed to returning America to the eighteenth century (when things were as they should be) appointments as judges at all levels of the judiciary — federal, state, and local © 2023 Kwiple.com
Money in politics I give to everybody. When they call, I give. And you know what? When I need something from them, two years later, three years later, I call them. They are there for me. And that's a broken system. Donald Trump © 2021 Kwiple.com
Money in politics I'm against very wealthy people attempting to or influencing elections. But as long as it's doable, I'm going to do it. Sheldon Adelson, who does it to the tune of about $100,000,000 per election © 2015 Kwiple.com
Money in politics I would do that, yeah, if I had to. I make $400 million a year, so what difference does it make? Donald Trump, answering a question about whether he would be willing to spend $1 billion of his own money to get elected President © 2016 Kwiple.com
Money in politics If I suddenly heard Adolf Hitler was alive in South America and wanted to give a million dollars to the American Mercury, I would go down and get it. William Bradford Huie, on selling the American Mercury, then a social-democratic magazine, to a far-right businessman © 2018 Kwiple.com
Money in politics If you've got the money I've got the time We'll go honky tonkin' and we'll have a time We'll make all the night spots dance drink beer and wine If you've got the money honey I've got the time … But if you run short of money I'll run short of time Cause you with no more money honey I've no more time Lefty Frizzell, “If You've Got the Money I've Got the Time” © 2021 Kwiple.com
Money in politics In the [New Hampshire] Senate race [Republican] Ms Ayotte is still level pegging with [Democrat] Ms Hassan. It is the most expensive election in New Hampshire's history. With 1.8m people, the projected $100m in spending will exceed the total cost of the Brexit referendum in the UK – a country of 65m. Financial Times, October 15-16, 2016 © 2016 Kwiple.com
Money in politics In order to achieve the widest possible distribution of political power, financial contributions to political campaigns should be made should be made by individuals alone. I see no reason for labor unions – or corporations – to participate in politics. Barry Goldwater, Conscience of a Conservative © 2019 Kwiple.com
Money in politics In some ways Obama is to election finance what  George [W] Bush had been to tax cuts — a bonanza.  Edward Luce, Time to Start Thinking  © 2017 Kwiple.com
Money in politics In the election cycle of 2016, the richest one-hundredth  of 1 percent of Americans — 24,949 extraordinarily wealthy people — accounted for a record-breaking 40 percent of all campaign contributions. By contrast, in 1980, the top 0.01 percent accounted for only 15 percent of all contributions. Robert B. Reich, The System © 2021 Kwiple.com
Money in politics In the 1980s, about 10 percent of all campaign spending came from one-tenth of 1 percent (0.01 percent) of the voting age population. By 2012, more than 40 percent of spending came from this tiny sliver of wealthy Americans. … [I]n 2012 the combined contributions of the 3.7 million small donors to the Obama and Romney campaigns amounted to less than the total contibutions of the 159 largest individual super PAC contributors. Benjamin Page and Martin Gilens, Democracy in America? © 2019 Kwiple.com
Money in politics In the 2015-16 election cycle, business outspent labor $3.4 billion to $213 million, a ratio of 16 to 1, according to the non- partisan Center for Responsive Politics. All of the nation's unions, taken together, spend about $48 million a year for lobbying in Washington, while corporate America spends $3 billion. Little wonder that many lawmakers seem vastly more interested in cutting taxes on cororations than in raising the minimum wage. Steven Greenhouse, New York Times, August 3, 2109 © 2019 Kwiple.com
Money in politics It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on his not undertanding it. Upton Sinclair © 2021 Kwiple.com
Money in politics Just as Republicans repay their donors with tax cuts, Democrats repay their base with debt forgiveness. Edward Luce, Financial Times, December 7, 2022 © 2022 Kwiple.com
Money in politics Money buys politicians. This is plutocracy, not democracy. Martin Wolf, Financial Times, December 4, 2019 © 2019 Kwiple.com
Money in politics Money can “buy time” from legislators –win their attention and get them to to step up their activity– but it seldom pushes them into switching sides. Instead, the big effects of money giving mostly involve getting friendly officials elected  and getting access  to officials once they are in office. Benjamin Page and Martin Gilens, Democracy in America? © 2019 Kwiple.com
Money in politics Money is like water; it will follow whatever path is open to it. Ganesh Sitaraman, The Crisis of the Middle-Class Constitution © 2021 Kwiple.com
Money in politics Money per se is not driving politics and policy. Instead, the fury of political competition draws money in. Richard M. Valelly, American Politics © 2018 Kwiple.com
Money in politics Money talks, Mr. President. Dark money whispers. Sheldon Whitehouse, speaking in the Senate, July 28, 2021 © 2021 Kwiple.com
Money in politics My warning, if you will, to corporate America is to stay out if politics. … I'm not talking about political contributions. Mitch McConnell © 2022 Kwiple.com
Money in politics Over the past decade, just ten people — ten donors and their spouses — have injected more than $1.1 billion into super PACs and other organizations that support their favored candidates. Ten families have a voice in Washington that drowns out millions of families who also need government on their side. Elizabeth Warren, Persist © 2021 Kwiple.com
Money in politics Performative fundraising is a prism through which to understand not only the GOP activity during the impeachment hearings but also the Republicans' Benghazi hearings and the end- less posturing around repealing Obamacare. It's not about achieving policy goals as much as energizing the base and separating them from their cash. Performative fundraising favors simplistic narratives, melodramatic rhetoric, an implacable enemy, and rote phrases to crowd out reasoned debate. Snippets of the act become fundraising pitches. Facebook microtargeting and e-mail lists ensure that pitches reach conservative retirees, especially in sunbelt states like Florida, California and Texas. Jake Bernstein, New York Review of Books, April 23, 2020 © 2020 Kwiple.com
Money in politics Pfizer, whose donations to the GOP in 2016 totaled $16 million, would reap $39 billion [in savings from the tax cuts passed by Congress in 2017]. [2,437:1] GE contributed $20 million and will get back $16 billion in tax savings. [800:1] Chevron donated $13 million and received $9 billion. [692:1] Not even a sizzling economy can deliver anything close to the returns on political investments. Robert B. Reich, The System © 2021 Kwiple.com
Money in politics “Poor man wanna be rich, Rich man wanna be king” [sang Bruce Springsteen in “Badlands”]. If you are a creepy right-wing billionaire [like Barre Seid] and you know the public hates your view of the world, the only way to be king is to work your way around democratic processes, go clandestine, and find a scamp like Leonard Leo who knows how to move levers secretly. Sheldon Whitehouse © 2023 Kwiple.com
Money in politics The president reimbursed it over a period of several months. Rudy Giuliani, Donald Trump's lawyer, on Michael Cohen's $130,000 hush money payment to Stormy Daniels on the eve of the 2016 presidential election © 2018 Kwiple.com
Money in politics The president repaid it … He didn't know about the specifics of it, as far as I know, but he did know about the general arrangement that Michael would take care of things like this, like I take care of things like this for my clients. I don't burden them with every single thing that comes along. These are busy people. Rudy Giuliani, Donald Trump's lawyer, on Michael Cohen's $130,000 hush money payment to Stormy Daniels on the eve of the 2016 presidential election © 2018 Kwiple.com
Money in politics The president's partnership with the Republican Party means he can solicit checks of more than $360,000 from each donor, far exceeding the $2,800 each Democratic candidate can ask of donors for that party's primary election. Wall Street Journal, October 1, 2019 © 2015 Kwiple.com
Money in politics  Report: Trump lawyer  brokered $130,000 payment to porn star headline, Washington Post, January 12, 2018 © 2018 Kwiple.com
Money in politics Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, the controversial Arizona Democrat who threatens to derail President Biden's legislative agenda, received more than $750,000 in donations from the pharma- ceutical and medical device industries. After that, she announced her opposition to a Democratic plan to lower prescription drug costs. … During her successful 2018 Senate campaign, Sinema repeatedly vowed to lower prescription drug prices and drug costs for seniors. Salon, September 23, 2021 © 2021 Kwiple.com
Money in politics Somebody should look into who paid for the small organized rallies yesterday. The election is over! Donald Trump, 9:13 AM – 16 Apr 2017, questioning the motivation of the 125,000+ people who took part in April 15 Tax Day rallies in 200 communities to demand that he release his tax returns © 2017 Kwiple.com
Money in politics Soon your sugar-daddies will all be gone. You'll wake up some cold day and find you're alone. You'll call to me but I'm gonna tell you: “Bye, bye, bye,” When I turn around and walk away, you'll cry, cry, cry. Johnny Cash, “Cry Cry Cry” © 2015 Kwiple.com
Money in politics There are two things that are important in politics. The first is money, and I can't remember what the second is. Mark Hanna © 2021 Kwiple.com
Money in politics There's … there's two people, I think, Putin pays. Putin pays: [California Representative Dana] Rohrabacher and Trump … [laughter]… swear to God. Kevin McCarthy, 2017, now a devout Trumpist  © 2019 Kwiple.com
Money in politics This effort to capture the Supreme Court — they're not kidding around. Spending $250 million in dark money [from 2014 to 2017] is a serious investment that demands a serious return. And guess what? Expert testimony before my Senate Court subcommitte has since raised that number to $400 million through 2018. Through all these allied and front groups — the keys on the dark money piano that the big money donors can play in chords and singly, as they wish — dark money donors can, from hiding, covertly channel tens if not hundreds of millios of dollars in anonymized money towards the scheme's court capture goal. Sheldon Whitehouse, August 5, 2021, on efforts by the Judicial Crisis Network to make the Supreme Court a tool for use by the right- wing anti-government mega donors it represents © 2021 Kwiple.com
Money in politics This is an impressive crowd: the haves and have-mores. Some people call you elites: I call you my base. George W. Bush © 2017 Kwiple.com
Money in politics  When “Billionaires and Stealth Politics” [by Benjamin Page, Jason Seawright and Matthew Lacombe] came out in 2018, Page says, multimillionaires who made political contribu- tions gave on average around $4,500 annually; for billionaires, the amount was $500,000. And, he emphasizes, that was just reported contributions, which means it didn't include any so-called dark money, the political giving by undisclosed donors that was blessed  by the Supreme Court’s ruling in Citizens United.  Page adds that 21 percent of the multimillionaires in their study bundled political donations from other people. “Twenty-one percent is a lot,” he says. “But then, among the billionaires, it was 36 percent.” Jaime Lowe, New York Times Magazine, April 7, 2022 © 2022 Kwiple.com
Money in politics When I ran for office that year, there were three main models of funding a Senate race: (1) ask lots of rich people and PACs for money; (2) hope that a super PAC would support you; (3) finance your campaign with your own personal fortune. We decided to try a fourth model: launch an online small-dollar fundraising effort. Elizabeth Warren, Persist on her 2012 run for the Senate, which she won © 2021 Kwiple.com
Money in politics Winning the White House in 2016 is expected to cost the successful candidate more than $1bn. Billionaire mega-donors like the Koch Brothers have already pledged to raise nearly $900m through their sprawling political network, to back conservative candidates. Financial Times, April 1, 2015, a mere 587 days prior to election day, November 8, 2016 © 2015 Kwiple.com
 
Money in politics With the RNC now joining President Trump's campaign in a joint fundraising committee, we're issuing new guidelines for candidates and committees who choose to use President Trump's name, image, and likeness in fundraising solicitations.  Beginning tomorrow, we ask that all candidates and committees who choose to use President Trump's name, image, and likeness split a  minimum of 5% of all fundraising solicitations to Trump National Committee JFC. … Any split that is higher than 5% will be seen favorably by the RNC and President Trump's  campaign and routinely reported to the highest  levels of leadership within both organizations.  April 15, 2024, letter from JFC to all (R) campigns © 2024 Kwiple.com