Democrats Rake In Wall Street Cash

Category: Untangling The Spin     Keywords: Wall Street
|

Despite their support of the Occupy Wall Street movement, (who, unlike the Tea Party, believe government is the answer to our economic problems), Democrats have enjoyed large paychecks from the industry.

President Obama, former-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), Congresswoman and chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL), and Congressman Barney Frank (D-MA) have all raised significant funds from Wall Street – and these numbers are just since 2008!

This information was pulled from OpenSecrets.org. They don’t quite tell the whole story, since Presidential donations are listed differently than other politicians. So the President’s funds are much higher. He’s actually raised $3.9 million just this year so far. But, he has raised nearly $12 million in Wall Street donations for the DNC. In total, that’s more than all the Republican Presidential candidates combined have received from Wall Street.

Yet President Obama supports the Occupy Wall Street Movement. He said that their protests were a reflection of a “broad-based frustration about how our financial system works.” He has also adopted the term “99%” when talking about raising taxes.

Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) has also spoken favorably for the protesters, saying “I support the message to the establishment, whether it’s Wall Street or the political establishment and the rest, that change has to happen.” Where was this support when the Tea Party was taking on the political establishment, hmm?

Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) parroted Pelosi by saying that these protests are ““symbolic of the frustration that middle class folks and working people feel that the wealthy always seem to have the wind at their backs.” She went on to say that, “[w]e understand their frustration, we applaud their activism and hopefully they’re going to help get the Republicans in Washington’s attention so we shift the Republican’s focus from just Barack Obama’s job, to everyone’s job,”

Not surprisingly, Debbie Wasserman Schultz also denounced the Tea Party.

And finally, Congressman Barney Frank (D-MA), who has raked in more from Wall Street than Pelosi and Wasserman Schultz combined. Just after announcing his support for Occupy Wall Street, Congressman Frank headed to a fundraiser – with Wall Street bankers. How’s that for hypocrisy? Of course, he had an answer for that, saying:

“If you take money from them, but you don’t vote [for] the things they want, how does that put you in conflict?”

I can think of a few ways.

These Democrats may claim to be on the side of the Occupy Wall Street Protesters, but the numbers don’t lie. They are clearly capitalizing on the populism of the day while continuing to line their campaign coffers with money from the very people they are now demonizing.

 

Related Links:
Tea Party Vs. Occupy Wall Street

Ashe Schow Photo
Ashe Schow

Deputy Communications Director

@asheschow
Please Share Your Thoughts
  • http://www.facebook.com/charles.wentling Charles Wentling

    That’s not really that much compared to John Boehner and Mitch McConnell. They are raking in the cash, that’s for sure. I’m just using that site you provided us, of course.

    • Robert Stackhouse

      Boehner only received $538,000 from Wall Street – so I didn’t waste my time checking out McConnell.

      • http://www.facebook.com/charles.wentling Charles Wentling

        Actually, that’s not true at all. Did you use the site this blog post provided? $538,900 from Securities & Investment, $77,400 from Commercial Banks, $171,750 from Insurance, $195,987 from Real Estate, $109,500 from Misc Finance. You total those numbers up, and you get $1,093,537 for Boehner from Wall Street. And that’s just for his most recent election. True that’s quite as high as what the President raised, but that’s to be expected since he holds a “higher” position. (“Higher”, used relatively here of course.)

    • http://www.facebook.com/kathrynkimks Kathryn Kimbrough

      Boehner and McConnell aren’t railing AGAINST Wall Street while taking their money – Pelosi, Frank, Obama, Wasserman-Whatever ARE. I do believe that is called hypocrisy.

      • http://www.facebook.com/charles.wentling Charles Wentling

        That’s because they both work for Wall Street. Employees don’t “rail” against their bosses. Nancy Pelosi and company are for the Wall Street protests because they recognize the danger in the corporatocracy. I agree with you that it is hypocrisy, and I am for them not accepting donations from crooked organizations. To a politician, though, winning is everything.

  • Pingback: ~ Angry White Boy ~

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000021465229 Lisa Stalcup

    ok but do the republicans get monies from wall street also ,, i bet they do i bet all the politicians get money from wall street just like they do form the medical companies and oil companies ,, it is the way we let the law makers set up our system ,, long time ago and we just keep letting it happen

    • http://www.facebook.com/charles.wentling Charles Wentling

      This is a poe.

  • Pingback: Biting the hand that feeds? | The Locker Room

  • http://twitter.com/TheSTARforum Jacqueline B. Smith

    Not one bit surprised.

  • Anonymous

    Just more Communists enjoying Capitalism before they crash the system forever.

  • Anonymous

    I am on a small pension, live in a second hand trailer,own a broken down used car,and
    still will give money to the republicans till it hurts, to see this embarrassment of a president gone.He is destroying what I ,as a military veteran fought for and hoped to leave my grandchildren. A strong USA.

    • http://www.facebook.com/epluribusmaximus Maximus Max

      God Bless You Young Man. Keep the faith.

  • http://www.facebook.com/kathrynkimks Kathryn Kimbrough

    Boehner and McConnell aren’t railing AGAINST Wall Street while taking their money – Pelosi, Frank, Obama, Wasserman-Whatever ARE. I do believe that is called hypocrisy.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_YZIQPRIBXGCONZFVLNU7RLK6YI Christine

    How is it that people on Wall Street, Lawyers, Educators and so many others do not understand what this administration is doing to this country. The class warfare they are pushing is very frightening. My mother and I are LEGAL immigrants to this country and I am devastated and sad that it is turning into what my mother and I escaped many years ago. I feel so helpless…….if people could just understand what socialism and communism is like most would not want to be part of that kind of system.

    • http://www.facebook.com/charles.wentling Charles Wentling

      I agree that communism can never be implement without authoritarianism. The Jesus/Marxist view of Communism will never fully be implemented simply because of social inequality. But this country isn’t going towards socialism or communism at all. With corporatocracy in progress, the US is under a neofascist Congress. One of the major signs of fascism is corporate control of the media. MSNBC, Fox News, and CNN are all corporate-controlled. And all are opinion-based primarily.

  • Pingback: FAIL. Dem Leaders Backing Occupy Wall Street Have Received The Most Contributions From . . . Wall Street | Politicons

  • Anonymous

    http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-10-26/nurse-making-269-810-demonstrates-california-s-overtime-binge.html

    Why is California broke? Looks like Obama is going to NOW have to bad mouth this blue collar worker, a nurse in California for raking in over $250,000.00. She has now become the “wicked rich”.

  • Pingback: Wall Street Political Donations: Barney Frank Reaps $1.3M, Obama $12M+ | Maggie's Notebook

  • Brittany Hardy

    OWS is not a movement of democrats. Many of them have beef with Obama, his affiliated party, and his policies as well. It’s a mistake to assume that this movement is about a bunch of unemployed hippies who are out to ruin America. I see so many different kinds of protesters here in Atlanta; many are educated and disenfranchised with a corrupt system that will ruin us and our children’s future. The fact of the matter is that the status quo is bankrupting us as a people while a select few continue to profit from it all. It’s doubtful that many of my generation (I’m in my twenties and a college graduate) will even be able to purchase a home, due to the student debt I took on to pay my way through college and overcome my crummy circumstances. This was my way of chasing the American Dream. Student debt will be the new mortgage, and it will be the next bubble to burst while the financial district and corporations scramble to find other ways to make money and try to resuscitate a dying system in need of great reform. I’m currently in graduate school to become a therapist. I want to heal people, but right now I’m stuck selling shoes and looking forward to a job that pays peanuts to mental healthcare workers. I know it’s scary to imagine the change that this movement demands, but it’s not in the form of communism or anarchy. It’s in the form of greater transparency and accountability, which is something that everyone wants, regardless of their party. Most of the protesters don’t hate the government. They hate that it is bought and paid for and serves as no more than a figurehead for corporations and serve their interests while we go without. How is this true capitalism or democracy? Can we honestly say with any conviction that the current system is in standing and working? We are supposedly the richest nation on earth, yet its own people do not reflect this wealth. We cling to our rights, but how are we exercising them? Occupying my city is how I contribute dignity to the sacrifices that soldiers have made for my freedoms. I want to do something, because it’s been a long time since anyone has, and the politicians have been all talk and no action, at least as far as it concerns helping the people they claim to care about. I love my country, but it’s time for an entity like a corporation, who legally considers itself an individual, to be required to face the same kind of accountability as one. And it’s time for our government to do its job and reflect the will of its people. No one wants this country to fail and for bad things to happen to good people. This is why people continue to occupy, and they probably won’t stop until something happens that benefits all of us.

  • Pingback: Obama, Nancy Pelosi, Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Barney Frank raking in the dough from evil Wall Street

  • Pingback: Dem leaders backing “Occupy Wall Street” receive more Wall St. contributions than Republicans — California Political Review

  • Pingback: Odd Coincidence: Same Democrats Supporting #OccupyWallStreet Have Also Received the Most Contributions From… Wall Street | My Blog

  • Eric Scoles

    So, I’m still not clear on what your problem is with this: Is it that they’re taking the money, or they’re not delivering for it?

  • Pingback: Empty Promises Led to Nazi Germany – The College Conservative

  • Pingback: The Glare of Unmitigated Hypocrisy of The Unconscionable Pelosi Mind | Babalú Blog

  • Pingback: The Glare of Unmitigated Hypocrisy of The Unconscionable Pelosi Mind | FavStocks

  • Pingback: Empty Promises Led to Nazi Germany | the college conservative

  • Pingback: Obama and His Banking Buddies |