Finance Sector Gave 51 Percent More to House Bailout Backers

niftydrifty · 09-30-08, 01:07 PM

Quote:

Members of Congress who defeated the emergency package Monday have collected nearly $590,000 from the industries most affected, on average, but the bill's supporters received $883,000.

On average, House members who voted for the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act have received 51 percent more money from the finance sector since 1989 than those who opposed it.

http://www.opensecrets.org/news/2008...0-percent.html

Kernel Sanders · 09-30-08, 01:13 PM

People are always so quick to point fingers because of donations. Correlation does not imply causation - there is no implication that these people voted the way they did because of the contributions. I would argue the reverse. These reps get more money from the financial sector because the financial lobbyists know that said reps' views line up more with theirs. They know that these reps will vote in their favor (such as now), so they give more. I would say that the money follows the votes, the votes don't follow the money

SFLRN · 09-30-08, 01:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kernel Sanders

People are always so quick to point fingers because of donations. Correlation does not imply causation - there is no implication that these people voted the way they did because of the contributions. I would argue the reverse. These reps get more money from the financial sector because the financial lobbyists know that said reps' views line up more with theirs. They know that these reps will vote in their favor (such as now), so they give more. I would say that the money follows the votes, the votes don't follow the money

If they are already inclined to vote one way why would you give them money? Why would you give them an incentive for something they would normally do anyways? It's more likely those contributions help work in supplements to bills or different loopholes that prevent regulations from being uniformly applied (as happened in the 1970 Clean Air Act).