Economy

Demeter

(85,373 posts)

8. Sweet Deal: Corporations Get $760 from the Government for Every Dollar They Spend on Elections

Fri Dec 12, 2014, 04:43 AM

Dec 2014

http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/sweet-deal-corporations-get-760-government-every-dollar-they-spend-elections?akid=12554.227380.7KjcC0&rd=1&src=newsletter1028348&t=6

The 2012 and 2014 elections were the most expensive in American history and were financed largely by corporate money. So why are American companies so eager to put up so much cash for political influence? Because it pays. A lot.

A report issued last month by the Sunlight Foundation, a government accountability group, found that for every dollar the nation’s most politically active companies spent on political influence, they received $760 from the government in the form of federal business and support. In total, the yearlong study reported that 200 of the country’s top campaign donors spent $5.8 billion on political lobbying and campaign contributions between 2007 and 2012 and received a whopping $4.4 trillion in return.

By contrast, the federal government paid the nation’s 50 million social security recipients $4.3 trillion during the same time period.

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