Scum sucking DELAY and his Publicans up their eyeballs in DEBT, and are willing to sell out Americans for their bankboyz contributions
TOM DELAY’S BANKRUPTCY BILL:
House Majority Leader In Debt to Big Banks and Credit Card Industry
April 2005
With Congress back from Easter recess, House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-TX) has said that the House of Representatives will swiftly take up and approve industry-backed bankruptcy reform legislation that will make it tougher for people to make a fresh start under bankruptcy laws, even when hit by medical disaster, job loss, and other life-altering events.
And no wonder: the current members of the House of Representatives are awash in campaign money from the commercial banking and the finance/credit industries that would benefit the most from bankruptcy reform—nearly $43 million collected since 1989, nearly two-thirds of that to Republicans—according to Public Campaign Action Fund analysis of Federal Election Commission (FEC) data coded by industry by the nonpartisan research group Center for Responsive Politics. The figures include contributions from Political Action Committees (PACs) and individual contributions of $200+ from executives and their families.
Roundly criticized by consumer organizations, some version of the bankruptcy reform legislation now before Congress has been introduced in every session since 1997. The banking and finance/credit industries have lobbied hard for the bill, which would make it easier for them to collect on debt when people declare bankruptcy. Yet these same companies have gone to extraordinary measures to lure people to spend more on credit than they can afford, sending out solicitations urging people to take on new cards, targeting students and other people who are poor credit prospects.
This year the chances are better than ever that the bankruptcy bill will become law. The Majority Leader ranks in the top echelons of Congress when it comes to money from the big banking and credit card industries. DeLay ranks 15th among his House colleagues in contributions from these industries to House members’ campaign funds, with $337,000; however, when contributions to his leadership PAC, ARMPAC, are added to the total, his take nearly doubles, climbing to more than $620,000.
Why is this troubling? During last year’s election, DeLay claimed ultimate power in advancing his own agenda, telling a reporter, “As majority leader, there isn’t a piece of legislation that makes it to the floor of the House without me saying so.” When the Senate was considering the bankruptcy bill in early March, the Majority Leader pledged fast action: “We will grab hold of it just like we did class action if it is a good and clean bankruptcy reform bill.” And that’s just what the Senate did.
Public Campaign Action Fund’s analysis shows:
• Among the top 15 recipients in the House of campaign cash from commercial banks and the finance/credit industry, 80% of the campaign cash went to Republicans, 20% to Democrats;
• These top 15 recipients, who make up just three percent of the membership of the House of Representatives, collected nearly one out of five of the dollars contributed to current House members by commercial banks and finance/credit card companies;
• Top donors to DeLay’s campaign fund and ARMPAC include some of the most profitable credit card companies in the business, including MBNA, BankAmerica, and Citicorp.
• The top five donors from commercial banks and finance/credit companies to DeLay’s campaign fund and leadership PAC account for more than half of the campaign money he has gotten from these industries—$320,050 out of $620,181.
• These top five donors earned more than $31 billion in profits in 2004 alone;
• DeLay has increased his take from commercial banks and the finance/credit industry over the years. In the 2004 election cycle, he collected $178,050, 76% more than the $101,300 he collected in 2002.
Commercial Banks & Finance/Credit Industries
Campaign Contributions,* 1989-2004, to
Members of the House of Representatives
Rank House Member Total
1
Richard Baker (R-LA)
$976,217
2
Michael N. Castle (R-DE) $898,223
3
Spencer Bachus (R-AL) $794,606
4
Michael G. Oxley (R-OH) $661,484
5
Pete Sessions (R-TX) $540,900
6
Deborah Pryce (R-OH) $463,516
7
Dennis Hastert (R-IL) $455,940
8
Rick Boucher (D-VA) $409,395
9
Bob Ney (R-OH) $408,540
10
Bart Gordon (D-TN) $383,691
11
Charles B. Rangel (D-NY) $369,150
12
Paul E. Kanjorski (D-PA) $354,810
13
John Linder (R-GA) $353,694
14
David Dreier (R-CA) $340,048
15
Tom DeLay (R-TX) $337,150 |
