A new Center for Responsive Politics study shows that Wall Street executives are now making 70% of their political contributions to Republicans. (And this is the money we can track: Wall Street firms can now use unlimited amounts of their corporate treasuries on political activities without disclosing what they’re doing). According to the report, the spike in Wall Street’s financial appreciation of the GOP coincided—coincidentally, I’m sure–with the Congressional debate over the financial reform law that was passed earlier this summer.
The new regulations were intended to prevent Wall Street from engaging in the kind of reckless behavior that got us into the recession. But Senate Republicans, obstructing progress as usual, voted nearly unanimously against reform. As Right Wing Watch reported, many of the GOP’s stated criticisms of the bill were bald-faced lies. For example, some Republicans claimed that the law would lead to more bailouts, when in fact it was specifically designed to prevent future taxpayer-funded get-out-of-jail-free cards for banks.
The GOP’s unified and factually incorrect opposition to financial reform may not have earned them much love from the Americans on Main Street who have lost their homes, jobs, or livelihoods in the recession…but at least they made some friends on Wall Street.