Do Americans feel that their Congressmen and women are voting for big business and oil rather than for them?

[porter]

Basically a congressman or woman needs funding to get elected. Without TV ads and lots of exposure, US citizens do not often take much notice of a politician. In order to get this money they need to look to big business with big money. That often means that a politician needs to look favourable in order to gain this money and will do what big business says, rather than what their votes say.

The 2010 house elections cost $1 billion. The 2010 Senate elections cost $759 million. This is the at least cost, there is a lot more than this.

Where did this money come from?

For example Maurice Hinchey, congressman for NY Lockheed Martin $1,000, American Airlines, $1,000, DCCC made 5 lots of $5,000, where did this money come from in the first place? Honeywell international $5,000.

Let's take the winner in the North Dakato Senate race, John Hoeven, who got over $1 million from corporate sources. A guy who made minus $2,000 from Newfield Pac. He got money from all over the place, Washington, Dallas, LA, Anchorage, $1.2 million from companies like this. But he got $2 million from individuals. Some of these individuals come from places like Denver, Dallas. Workers for TRT holdings put quite a lot of money in, a Texas based oil company. The CEO put $1 million into American Crossroads that gives money to republican candidates, the workers are putting money towards candidates in other states on the other side of the country. So of this money that comes from "individuals", a lot comes from corporations that have their own agendas too. One look at one page from the FEC pages shows us that 8 people from ND paid money (all $2,400 on this one page), one person from PA, two from OK, two from TX, two from OK, two from CA, two from AZ, two from MN and one from NY. So 14 from outside the state, 8 from the state.

All seems a little fishy to me.

http://action.change-congress.org/pages/fair-elections-now-act

"Special interests pump millions of dollars into our elections, giving them more influence over the political system than anyone. Until we fix our broken campaign finance laws, these special interests will block substantive reform, from the left and from the right, on issue after issue."

http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/thesword/2010/01/corporate-funding-of-election.html

"A victory for free speech, or a reckless capitulation to special interests with bulging wallets?

That's the new political debate in the US, following Thursday's ruling by the Supreme Court, which loosens restrictions on corporate spending on advertisements to endorse or oppose particular political candidates."

[jabin20]

Absolutely. And the last example you cite makes it much, much worse.

Unrestricted and untraceable funding of the election process in this country is the root of corruption. Companies don’t spend money without an expectation of return and you can bet that the candidates know where the money came from and what’s expected of them. Consider Medicare Part D, the Government can’t even negotiate prices (for the love of Mike!). How much did that cost the pharmaceutical industry and how many billions did it bring them? Add big oil, and big banking and the infection is pernicious and deep.

President Obama is right on this one.

[osbourne]

And the unions.

[christos]

no

[lazaro94]

of course

[marlan43]

As an American voter, yes i do think our elected officials side with big business and oil more often then the populace.
Personally, I think we need massive campaign finance reform. If i'm not mistaken, in Britain, candidates relay solely on public funding; we should mimic that system. Our candidates should be restricted to a certain amount of money provided by the government and the campaign season does not need to be a year long (in reference to the 2008 primaries).

And a note to all you folks who will start on about "crushing taxes" and "big government" I ask you to merely look at the military and intelligence budgets. Look at the massive waste in the Defense Department. Despite all that money, they can't care for injured soldiers (Walter Reed Military Hospital) and they can't find a way to treat PTSD.
The inflated military budget is why I can't attend public university for free or at least at a manageable rate and that is why it has taken us this long to even start on the path towards universal health care.

[jorel]

If Congress men and women are voting for big oil and business they're doing an extremely bad job of it. Big business is under attack as rich and uncaring unities. They employed millions of people who would be jobless if not for these business's and higher cost to the consumer for those goods or no goods or services for use if not for big business. Big oil isn't big oil not in America they are limited to a small fraction of the America's land mass and sea area's . It a disgrace they are not allow to drill for natural gases and oil which is so plentiful. In fact America could be an OPEC nation if allowed. Congress men and women may take $$ from these interest but pay back hardly.