If you measure by the amount of bribes they accept from lobbyists, the answer is:

http://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/list.php?order=A

Totals: Democrats: $975 Million and change, Republicans: $625 Million and change. Democrats are bribed 56% more than Republicans.

Mo money!!

But seriously, I don't think this statistic is overwhelming enough to pass grave judgement. After all, there are the backhanders which never make it to the light of day. Not saying Republicans are necessarily closing the gap in that regard, but who knows??

Still, it's proof that Democrats are under financial pressure when making political choices...

Also, what is it per person? Does this just reflect the fact that there are more Democrats in Washington right now by a large margin?

if he's going by the summary page (88 to 08) then I imagine it's not too skewed either way.

I would honestly expect it to be way more even. human nature is kind of the overriding factor here.

where is the AARP? I thought they were the single biggest donor or something. and I thought the NRA was much higher than what it is.

That is the obvious first question.

Of course, politicians will say that the money goes to the people the corporations agree with, rather than politicians changing their positions for the highest bidder. I'm pretty sure the reality is closer to the latter, as nobody comes into office with a strong position on the proper cost-sharing regulation for subsection C of the Communications Act....

I think the top 20 is the most interesting part: AT&T, who divides their money evenly, then lots of unions giving money to Democrats.

A big part of this is that unions give a lot of money to the Democrats.....and unions do not come off as sleazy as some other lobbies do (tobacco, gun, whatever). In reality, unions can be really sleazy. But, in the mind of the public, it is not as bad to take money from a worker's union as it is to take money from Exxon.

It's also possible that the republicans are just better at giving and taking bribes without getting caught...

We're better at everything else...

except winning elections in 2008

gotta work on that

OOOHhh...so smart

Mr. Smarty pants...

GET a JOB!

I'm not great at math, but it seems to me that 1.6 billion in bribes is just plain despicable. And that's may not even factoring in the lobbyists.

go past the beginning stages where they were important and needed, move onto the last 50 years where they have attempted to abused power (that they don’t have), bribery, embezzlement, violence, nepotism…Unions have done more to hurt this country in the last 30 to 50 years then any other professional group…they have written the book on sleazy.

I am just saying how this process is viewed by the public (and I think you agree with me). I think there are plenty of good unions and plenty of other groups that have been just as if not more sleazy than the worst unions......but there are certain unions that are generally held in high esteem which are killing us (teacher's union is the worst of the worst imo).

Consider that large firms spend ten times as much on lobbying as their employees spend on campaign contributions through PACs, as individuals, or in the form of unregulated contributions to political parties (i.e., soft money). I mention employee contributions because, contrary to the sloppy reporting that appears regularly in U.S. newspapers, corporations in the United States do not contribute to political campaigns: they are prohibited from doing so and have been so prohibited since 1907. When you read that Enron has given X million dollars to candidates, what that really means is that people who identify themselves as Enron employees have given X million dollars of their own money.

i guess it depends what circles you are in. In my home town, circle of friends and most of the county i live Union are generally viewed poorly.

Teachers Union maybe the important union and the most out of touch with the times.

my wife works in the school system here in Miami and she says about 35% of the teachers are woefully unqualified but firing one of them takes an act of god. Of course, there is a dearth of qualified teachers here in general so we have lots of problems.

In Miami, unions are generally viewed in a positive light.....as a force to protect the little guy against the big guy. The construction unions down here are particularly strong. The teacher's union is actually relatively weak down here because teachers are not allowed to strike in Florida (which is unusual I think) but they still manage to screw up a lot.

Unions are corrupt by nature. As a worker you either answer to your employer directly on your union rep. It is just as likely for your union rep to be corrupt as it is for the employer to be corrupt. There are benfits to having unions, and some probably are a lot better than others.

There is a tendency for union officers to get very sweetheart deals, while the actual rank and file union member get a few scraps that the officers see fit to throw there way. My brother was in a union and despite overwhelming support for certain things by the union membership, the only view that counted was those of the officers, who in many cases were given incentives in the forms of bribes, kickbacks, favors by the employer to to rule or vote in favor of the company.

Individual greivences were especially futile. They were basically told to be greatful for what they had and quit complaining. Sound familiar?

It all comes downs to human nature, and where power is consolidated you are going to find a lot of corruption.

it is my personal opinion that unions get a terrible rap for all the instances where their employer has grossly mismanaged the relationship. you hear about all the awful cases (UAW) and are never told that there are extremely smart firms (southwest airlines is the classic example, I'm sure there are others) that do just fine operating with a union.

I mean yes, if you are awful at negotiating, there will be situations where workers are paid NOT to work. it's just another way the smart firms can separate themselves from the pack.

I think you make a very good point here.

Awful at negotiating? How about having your negotrions interfered with by politicians who get tons of money from the other side. They are very capable of negotiating, but in the instances of which you speak, thier hands are largely tied by politicians.

The California Teachers association is the most powerful lobbyist group in our state. Our has some of the worst schools/teachers. We have a budget of over 100Billion that was 30Billion over last year and just about half of that money goes to our school systems.


Math is very hard.

so is english!

I don't know the history of how the UAW got so blown out of proportion. I remember reading that once it became apparent GM was going to be unable to control labor costs, they attempted to fight a war of attrition with the UAW. The impression I get is that they figured when things turned dire, the unions would relent.

We all know the rest of the story.

We'll see if the approach they chose (awarding a bunch of stake in the reformed GM) will align the UAW's interests with GM's.

that's a joke. better at what? running the country's economy into the ground and nearly the world's economy? if so, then yes, you are better at messing things up.

That is interesting in Philly the construction Unions are particularly corrupt. Teachers are for the most part very good and the public school system is strong. The teachers just have lost reality to economics, the laws of supply and demand and the general climate of the country.



Not to mention they attempt to program the kids that socialism is a good thing…I spent half the fall deprogramming my kids from the election!!

This is an interesting attempt at a slam during the week in which our Democratic administration admitted that their budget deficit will now exceed all previous budget deficits for the history of the U.S. combined.

Yeah, Idk if I like what Obama is doing in office. I was just pointing out to balloon guy that republicans aren't any better than democrats.

Lol try getting them into speech & debate. They might not turn out to agree with you but at least they'll have the facts to back up their arguments.

There may be hope yet.

http://betsyspage.blogspot.com/2009/08/ack...lic-school.html

Thanks but we'll stick with Baseball and Football...facts are over rated.