2014/04/07/If 97 Percent of Americans Sold Everything They Owned and Spent It on Congressional Elections
- when: 2014/04/07
- author: Owen Poindexter
- source: AlterNet
- topics: economic disparity financial political influence
- keywords
- link: http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/only-3-percent-america-has-enough-total-assets-reach-max-contribution-limit-13
- title: If 97% of Americans Sold Everything They Owned and Spent It on Congressional Elections, They Still Couldn't Max Out
- summary: To max out on one side of every race including PACs and parties would take $1,291,400. 97% of the country could not reach this limit if they emptied their bank accounts and liquidated all of their possessions. For a few lucky souls, however, $1.3 million is a drop in the bucket.
Specifically, to max out on one side of every race, a donor would need $1,216,800. Tack on the $74,600 for PACs and parties for a total of $1,291,400.
Ninety-seven percent of the country could not reach this limit if they emptied their bank accounts and liquidated all of their possessions. For a few lucky souls, however, $1.3 million is a drop in the bucket.
The Koch brothers can support every pro-fracking, climate-denying, anti-tax candidate with an insignificant fraction of their $41 billion (each).
The Walton family, owners of the vast Walmart empire, can essentially guarantee that Obama's big push to increase the minimum wage will not go anywhere by maxing out on GOP candidates. For six individual Waltons, that would be a rounding error in their bank account, and likely a profitable investment, given the number of Walmart employees currently making minimum wage.
Casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, who is hardly shy about pushing his anti-tax and pro-Israel agendas via donations, is as good a bet as any to use McCutcheon to wield more power than most individual lawmakers.
These billionaires, merely by acting in their own self-interest, warp U.S. policy decisions in a way that is arbitrary and harmful to the vast majority of the country.