Are You Really Voting for Goldman Sachs?

Ralph Nader has an article in Huffington Post that recommends that all candidates running for election in 2012 wear their sponsors' logos on their jackets where the voting public can see who their sponsors are.  For example, Goldman Sachs would have its proud logo all over John Boehner.  He would have to make  a lot of room for logos that represent the $18 million he has raised so far!

Poor people do not work at Goldman Sachs so donations from Goldman are from the rich and the ultra-rich and they hope to influence the candidates once they are elected.  They certainly have had success in the past in helping deregulate laws and rules they did not like or want.

And if you want to know how much Goldman Sachs pays to buy your elected representatives both Democratic and Republican and who they are, see Pam Martens' article entitled Goldman Sachs'[s] Paywall to Your Democracy here.  What she means by paywall is that the donors pay the elected officials in order to gain access to their decision-making process, in an influential way, of course.

If you want to know the 2012 candidates who have been given money from Goldman Sachs, see OpenSecrets.org where there are four pages of recipients across the political spectrum who have received Goldman Sachs money ranging from $678,500 on down.

There will not be enough room on some candidates' clothing to show all the money received from interested corporations and banks.

AT&T Present:  Your Congressional RepresentativeTM Brought to You by Goldman Sachs  
By Ralph Nader - Huffington Post
. . . .
 
Let's look at Rep. John Boehner of Ohio's 8th Congressional district, current Speaker of the House, major corporate donation sponge and model of our first Congressional jacket poster. A quick glance at Speaker Boehner's top contributors reveals a whole slew of heavy hitters: AT&T, FirstEnergy Corp, Swisher International (maker of "America's favorite Swisher Sweets Cigars"), and American Electric Power. Sallie Mae, Walmart and Goldman Sachs were also big time contributors in previous campaign cycles.

For the 2012 election cycle, running completely unopposed by the Democrats, Boehner has raised more than 18 million campaign dollars -- nearly twice as much as he raised in 2010 when he actually had an opponent. Even considering his elevated status as Speaker, it's still a shocking amount of money.

Boehner once told CNN: "I am the business community, that's who I am," while in the same breath saying, "I don't do special interest favors." This is the same John Boehner, who, as Congress debated the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform act in 2009, invited hundreds of financial industry lobbyists to Washington for a strategy session on de-fanging any significant reform. The same John Boehner who rakes in millions of dollars from the healthcare industry while presiding over a House of Representatives that has voted more than 30 times to repeal Obamacare -- and has done little else.

See the whole article here