Here’s Who Really Controls Politics in the U.S.

http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/2015/05/01/Here-s-Who-Really-Control-Politics-US?utm_campaign=548f5168cb03a93709042da0&utm_source=boomtrain&utm_medium=email&bt_alias=eyJ1c2VySWQiOiJmZmViMzM1Ny1jYjI3LTQxYTQtYmZiZi1mYzIyMTVmMTczNzgifQ%3D%3D

By Eric Pianin, The Fiscal Times
May 1, 2015

In an era when just about every major Republican and Democratic presidential aspirant has a campaign sugar daddy, the role of big money in politics has never been more crucial.

As The Washington Post noted this week, “Never have so many candidates entered a White House contest boosted by such huge sums.”

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In the 2014 elections, 31,976 donors — equal to about one percent of one percent of the total population of the United States – accounted for an astounding $1.18 billion in disclosed political contributions at the federal level, according to a new report by the Center for Responsive Politics and the Sunshine Foundation, two non-partisan campaign spending watchdogs.

“Those big givers — what we have termed the Political One Percent of the One Percent — have a massively outsized impact on federal campaigns,” according to the report.

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The $1.18 billion they contributed represents 29 percent of all fundraising that political committees disclosed to the Federal Election Commission in 2014.
Though both parties depend on these donors, the GOP received more from them than Democrats.

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“The donors at the very top of the money pyramid provided the financial fuel for many of the attack ads and other messages from independent organizations that filled the airwaves last year,” according to the report. A previous analysis by CRP found that the country’s top 100 donors accounted for 39 percent of the $696,011,919 raised by super PACs in the 2014 elections.”

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