AT&T Top Campaign Contributor Since 1990 $45,461,879 in campaign contributions since 1990 Ars Technica played around for a little while in campaign donor records and found that AT&T "easily" qualifies as the top donor in political campaigns since 1990. Since that time, AT&T has doled out a whopping $45,461,879 to politicians, significantly more than runner ups the National Association of Realtors ($36,749,493) and Goldman Sachs ($32,660,452). AT&T's donations were bi-partisan in nature, though they did favor an Obama White House, apparently (AT&T was paid back with immunity for charges of illegal wiretapping): Following the money is easy when it comes to AT&T. Figuring out the corporation's politics is harder. In 2008, for example, the carrier spent $14,736,518 on federal and state office seekers. But the company spread the loot around in a fairly bipartisan manner. Open Secrets classifies the corporation as a fence sitter when it comes to politics, although during the 2008 presidential election, Barack Obama was clearly the telco's favorite. Ars correctly notes that while AT&T does donate to a number of groups, many of them are simply given money to parrot AT&T positions -- in essence also becoming lobbyists. Granted, we're not even counting the money AT&T spends on fake consumer groups, PR agents, statistical magicians, "fauxcademics" and other efforts, all working (of course) on AT&T turf protection by ensuring limited competition, easing regulation on AT&T should they want to get into the TV business, or having competitors more heavily regulated. Most importantly, that kind of lobbying power means AT&T gets to have the laws changed, should they oh, break them. Repeatedly.
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 | | A rose.. A rose by any other name is still a rose.. We should call lobby what it really is: a 'bribe'.
We have the best government money can buy.
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»www.invest.TongSat.com Invest with us | |
|  |  en102Canadian, eh?
join:2001-01-26
Valencia, CA | Re: A rose.. said by TongSama:A rose by any other name is still a rose.. We should call lobby what it really is: a 'bribe'. We have the best government money can buy. I agree on both statements.
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Canada = Hollywood North | |
| | fiberguyMy views are my own.Premium
join:2005-05-20
kudos:3 | said by TongSama:A rose by any other name is still a rose.. We should call lobby what it really is: a 'bribe'. We have the best government money can buy. You betchya... because those consumer groups, who also lobby, are just as crooked, right?
I don't care for lobbyist, per say, but that's how the gubberment works... want to get some attention, you're more than welcome to raise money and lobby too. | |
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| | Well They do get a tax write off for those contributions. | |
| | en102Canadian, eh?
join:2001-01-26
Valencia, CA | Re: Well That's good for them...
Instead of just 'handing over money' to Uncle Sam (taxes), they're allowed to 'put their money to work' and pay Uncle Sam at the same time. Talk a about a racket.
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Canada = Hollywood North | |
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 pnh102Reptiles Are Cuddly And PrettyPremium
join:2002-05-02
Mount Airy, MD |  So?
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"Net Neutrality" zealots - the people you can thank for your capped Internet service. | |
| | | | Re: So? Unless they're made an offer they can't refuse. 
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Hope this helps... | |
| | | | Personally, I believe that only individuals should be able to donate to political campaigns, and only up to a certain amount (say $5,000 per year).
It would make politics in America so much more balanced, and lower the cost of entry for 3rd and 4th party candidates.
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Verizon DSL: 3M/768K | |
| | |  LinklistPremium
join:2002-03-03
Longport, NJ
kudos:5 | Re: So? said by trekboy:Personally, I believe that only individuals should be able to donate to political campaigns, and only up to a certain amount (say $5,000 per year). Is that $5,000 total to all campaigns in 1 yr. Or is it $5,000 per candidate. If it is per candidate, then nothing changes. For example, George Soros has given close to $1M over 10 yrs, spread over dozens of congress critters. He is buying Congress 1 congressman at a time. If he can give $5,000 to each congress critter nothing has changed, especially when all his relatives can do the same thing. | |
| | | | | | Re: So? said by Linklist:If he can give $5,000 to each congress critter nothing has changed, especially when all his relatives can do the same thing. Or a bunch of monks. Just ask Al "There is no controlling legal authority" Gore.
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Dresden - I work in Accounts Payable.
Random Bad Guy - In what capacity?
Dresden - I make sure everyone gets what's coming to them. | |
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| |  KrKHeavy Artillery For The Little GuyPremium
join:2000-01-17
Tulsa, OK | BINGO.
Corporations should not be treated like individuals and have the same rights individuals have to purchase "representation" from Government via contributions to political campaigns and committees. If they aren't considered a "Person" then the silly free speech arguments would be moot.
The people who make up the company are citizens, but NOT the company itself!
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"Fascism should more properly be called corporatism because it is the merger of state and corporate power." -- Benito Mussolini
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| | | said by pnh102:Why rag on AT&T or any other company that pays protection money to Congress? Elected officials, if they really wanted to, could solve this problem by not accepting such bribes. Subsequently losing the next election due to a lack of funds. | |
| |  thenderScreen tycoonPremium
join:2009-01-01
Brooklyn, NY
kudos:1 | I know I don't have any say in how a company uses its profits.
I pay a high phone bill. I like to at least be able to pretend it goes to things that matter.
I don't want my money going to 45 million in campaign contributions. I want it going to a network that works in New York City.
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If you're going to repair your own Macbook, benefit from my experiences. | |
| | |  C_Kill The SocialistsPremium
join:2001-03-19
kudos:3 | Re: So? said by thender:I know I don't have any say in how a company uses its profits. I pay a high phone bill. I like to at least be able to pretend it goes to things that matter. I don't want my money going to 45 million in campaign contributions. I want it going to a network that works in New York City.
as an AT&T shareholder, I could give two shits what you want. all that matters is maximizing my stock value 
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"and no matter how drunk you get .. don't lick the wall socket to test polarity..." | |
| | | | KrKHeavy Artillery For The Little GuyPremium
join:2000-01-17
Tulsa, OK | Re: So? said by C_:as an AT&T shareholder, I could give two shits what you want. all that matters is maximizing my stock value And this is why the USA is circling the drain. Period. This exact attitude.
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"Fascism should more properly be called corporatism because it is the merger of state and corporate power." -- Benito Mussolini
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| | | | | thenderScreen tycoonPremium
join:2009-01-01
Brooklyn, NY
kudos:1 | Re: So? Yeah people like C_  are a drain on society. | |
| | | | | |  ThespisI'm not an actor, but I play one on TV.Premium
join:2004-08-03
Keller, TX | Re: So? Why would you consider someone who invests a drain on society?
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Fast. Cheap. Safe.
Pick two... | |
| | | | | | | | | Re: So? said by Thespis:Why would you consider someone who invests a drain on society? People that want something for nothing are inherently hostile towards people that assume risk.
The guy you quoted was probably being sarcastic, though.
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Dresden - I work in Accounts Payable.
Random Bad Guy - In what capacity?
Dresden - I make sure everyone gets what's coming to them. | |
| | | | | | | | thenderScreen tycoonPremium
join:2009-01-01
Brooklyn, NY
kudos:1 | Re: So? I just like poking fun at my wannabe Gordon Gekko IRC friend C_ every now and then. | |
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| | | | | C_Kill The SocialistsPremium
join:2001-03-19
kudos:3 | said by thender:Yeah people like C_ are a drain on society. how's that charter stock treating you?
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"and no matter how drunk you get .. don't lick the wall socket to test polarity..." | |
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| Reviews:
 ·Verizon FiOS
| Elected officials will stop accepting bribes at about the same time as (take your pick):
--lasting peace in the Middle East.
--A gay Pope is elected.
--Muslims, Christians, and Jews live together in harmony.
--Aliens land in any city on earth.
--There are no more hungry people on earth.
etc.
Bribes are simply a part of politics. There is no way to avoid it. There will always be a way around any election laws any government can pass. | |
| | | | | | pnh102Reptiles Are Cuddly And PrettyPremium
join:2002-05-02
Mount Airy, MD | said by old_wiz_60:Bribes are simply a part of politics. There is no way to avoid it. There will always be a way around any election laws any government can pass. True, but I am just pointing out that elected officials' behavior, and not the behavior of these companies is the reason that bribes take place.
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"Net Neutrality" zealots - the people you can thank for your capped Internet service. | |
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| | | said by pnh102:Why rag on AT&T or any other company that pays protection money to Congress? Elected officials, if they really wanted to, could solve this problem by not accepting such bribes. True, they could take the high road and refuse the contribution. But in the current political climate money wins elections. The more money you have the more airtime, advertising and exposure you get, the more likely you are to win the race.
It's partially the public's fault. Apathy is at an all time high. No one bothers actually researching a candidate's positions, his voting record. All we hear (if anything) is his campaign slogan on radio and TV. When we get to the polls it's usually a game of name recognition (either the candidate's or their party's). We are suckers for a candidate's "brand", his public persona created by his P.R. handlers, but rarely take the time to explore what he has done in the past.
I say ban all campaign contributions (money, trips, services). Each candidate would receive a set amount of money for a given race from the branch of government the election is for (mayor is paid for by the city, governer by the state, etc...). Keep everyone on an equal footing from a financial standpoint and let there ideas (or, more likely, rhetoric) speak for themselves. | |
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 PToN
join:2001-10-04
Houston, TX | Old We all knew that the government has always been for sale. Now how much of it can you buy, depends on how deep your pocket is... | |
| LinklistPremium
join:2002-03-03
Longport, NJ
kudos:5 |  Here is the FULL top 10 list
Top 10 Heavy Hitters:
AT&T Inc $45,461,879
American Fedn of State, County & Municipal Employees $42,883,511
ActBlue $42,399,451
National Assn of Realtors $36,749,493
Goldman Sachs $32,660,452
Intl Brotherhood of Electrical Workers $32,505,695
American Assn for Justice $32,432,279(i.e. trial lawyers)
National Education Assn $30,812,330
Laborers Union $29,629,800
Service Employees International Union $28,659,682 It isn't just those nasty corporations that are buying Congress. 7 of the top 10 are either unions, trial lawyers, or big pocket individual Dems.
Seems like AT&T has to spend big bucks just to level the playing field. | |
| | openbox9Premium
join:2004-01-26
japan
kudos:2 | Re: Here is the FULL top 10 list But that doesn't make for nearly as juicy of a story. AT&T barely beat out a compilation of unions representing employees of the public sector."battling efforts to privatize public sector jobs" Kind of incestuous it seems. | |
| | |  FBGuyPremium
join:2005-03-19
Evanston, IL | Re: Here is the FULL top 10 list dont forget that IBEW is a large portion of AT&T's own employees. | |
| | | | | said by openbox9:But that doesn't make for nearly as juicy of a story. AT&T barely beat out a compilation of unions representing employees of the public sector. "battling efforts to privatize public sector jobs" Kind of incestuous it seems. What is your quote referring to? Do you even have a point? | |
| | | | openbox9Premium
join:2004-01-26
japan
kudos:2 | Re: Here is the FULL top 10 list Are you really that unwilling to read posts and the content that they link to? Read this link. | |
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| | | said by Linklist:» www.opensecrets.org/orgs/index.phpTop 10 Heavy Hitters:
AT&T Inc $45,461,879
American Fedn of State, County & Municipal Employees $42,883,511
ActBlue $42,399,451
National Assn of Realtors $36,749,493
Goldman Sachs $32,660,452
Intl Brotherhood of Electrical Workers $32,505,695
American Assn for Justice $32,432,279(i.e. trial lawyers)
National Education Assn $30,812,330
Laborers Union $29,629,800
Service Employees International Union $28,659,682 It isn't just those nasty corporations that are buying Congress. 7 of the top 10 are either unions, trial lawyers, or big pocket individual Dems. Seems like AT&T has to spend big bucks just to level the playing field. Unions are the result of a group of individuals volunteering money out of their pocket for a common cause. Corporations are nothing like that. They use their profits derived from customers, whose political affiliations have absolutely nothing to do with products they purchased from said corporation, to manipulate legislators.
Even an attempt to make a pity plea for "investors' sake" is inane. The vast majority of corporate stock is owned by the top 20% richest in this country. If everyone is truly equal, as our constitution states, what's good for "investors" is undoubtedly not what's good for the country overall.
Of course you know this very well already and are trolling, but hey, I'm a generous troll-feeder. | |
| | | LinklistPremium
join:2002-03-03
Longport, NJ
kudos:5 | Re: Here is the FULL top 10 list said by sonicmerlin:Unions are the result of a group of individuals volunteering money out of their pocket for a common cause. Don't make laugh. Union political contributions are made by the union leaders often over the objections of their membership. Individual union members aren't volunteering squat. It is coming out of their union dues; dues they usually have no say in setting. | |
| | | | | "volunteering money out of their pocket for a common cause"
When you have to join the union you are not volunteering anything. | |
| | | openbox9Premium
join:2004-01-26
japan
kudos:2 | said by sonicmerlin:The vast majority of corporate stock is owned by the top 20% richest in this country. If everyone is truly equal, as our constitution states, what's good for "investors" is undoubtedly not what's good for the country overall. Considering pension funds and the like own a significant portion of the market, I disagree strongly with your belief that "what's good for investors is not good for the country". BTW, if you're going to PDOOMA percentages, don't make them nice round numbers. They're not very believable. | |
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| Sammer
join:2005-12-22
Canonsburg, PA | Note that some of the largest amounts are from public employee unions. Their members are supposed to be working for us but such amounts suggest that some of them are clearly working against we the people. | |
| | | | | who do they mean by att? Att, sbc, cingular? A number of other little companies who were gobbled up? | |
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| pnh102Reptiles Are Cuddly And PrettyPremium
join:2002-05-02
Mount Airy, MD | said by Linklist:» www.opensecrets.org/orgs/index.phpTop 10 Heavy Hitters:
AT&T Inc $45,461,879
American Fedn of State, County & Municipal Employees $42,883,511
ActBlue $42,399,451
National Assn of Realtors $36,749,493
Goldman Sachs $32,660,452
Intl Brotherhood of Electrical Workers $32,505,695
American Assn for Justice $32,432,279(i.e. trial lawyers)
National Education Assn $30,812,330
Laborers Union $29,629,800
Service Employees International Union $28,659,682 It isn't just those nasty corporations that are buying Congress. 7 of the top 10 are either unions, trial lawyers, or big pocket individual Dems. Seems like AT&T has to spend big bucks just to level the playing field. How funny indeed. Of course there is NO OUTRAGE WHATSOEVER over all that union spending on bribes. And to add insult to injury, public sector unions are doing this WITH TAXPAYER MONEY.
To be fair, I include Government Sachs as another entity that bribes Congress with taxpayer money.
So why all the focus on AT&T? It seems far more bribes are done using taxpayer money by organizations that exist only because of government.
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"Net Neutrality" zealots - the people you can thank for your capped Internet service. | |
| | | KrKHeavy Artillery For The Little GuyPremium
join:2000-01-17
Tulsa, OK | Re: Here is the FULL top 10 list Classic FUD.
They are employees, just like anyone. That's their income, their pay for working. Claiming it as Taxpayer funds is disingenuous at best. As said above, tens of thousands, or even hundreds of thousands of individuals is not the same as one single entity.
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"Fascism should more properly be called corporatism because it is the merger of state and corporate power." -- Benito Mussolini
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| | | | pnh102Reptiles Are Cuddly And PrettyPremium
join:2002-05-02
Mount Airy, MD | Re: Here is the FULL top 10 list said by KrK:They are employees, just like anyone. That's their income, their pay for working. Claiming it as Taxpayer funds is disingenuous at best. As said above, tens of thousands, or even hundreds of thousands of individuals is not the same as one single entity. So?
These unions' bribing of elected officials is a conflict of interest because their paychecks are cut by the same people they are bribing.
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"Net Neutrality" zealots - the people you can thank for your capped Internet service. | |
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|  SandSharkLong may you runPremium,MVM
join:2000-05-23
Santa Fe, TX
kudos:3 | said by Linklist:» www.opensecrets.org/orgs/index.phpTop 10 Heavy Hitters:
AT&T Inc $45,461,879
American Fedn of State, County & Municipal Employees $42,883,511
ActBlue $42,399,451
National Assn of Realtors $36,749,493
Goldman Sachs $32,660,452
Intl Brotherhood of Electrical Workers $32,505,695
American Assn for Justice $32,432,279(i.e. trial lawyers)
National Education Assn $30,812,330
Laborers Union $29,629,800
Service Employees International Union $28,659,682 It isn't just those nasty corporations that are buying Congress. 7 of the top 10 are either unions, trial lawyers, or big pocket individual Dems. Seems like AT&T has to spend big bucks just to level the playing field. I thought the NRA would have been on that list. | |
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| KrKHeavy Artillery For The Little GuyPremium
join:2000-01-17
Tulsa, OK | AT&T is giving as one entity. The Unions mentioned are made up of tens of thousands of individuals raising funds. | |
| | | | | Re: Here is the FULL top 10 list Thats a wierd way to raise funds. I pay my dues they choose what to blow the money on even when I object to the way they blow them.
Crooks the lot of them. | |
| | | | | said by KrK:AT&T is giving as one entity. Not true. The PAC represents donations to the cause from individual employees and is not a condition of employment, unlike union dues. | |
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 SnowymIRC unix.ro UnderNetPremium
join:2003-04-05
Kailua, HI
kudos:6 | It's a necessary evil If it weren't for lobbyists how would our politicians know what to do? | |
| |  camaro92Question everythingPremium
join:2008-04-05
Westfield, MA | Re: It's a necessary evil That is funny yet so true,also like another poster said blame the politicians they are the real problem and the only way we can speak anymore is with that one little vote. | |
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| | if it was not for the stupid public this would not be and issue. if you disagree see article above that directly reflects ELECTED PUBLIC OFFICIALS..
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calling a illegal alien undocumented is like calling a drug dealer a undocumented pharmacist | |
|  MurdocPremium
join:2009-02-08
Manitowoc, WI | No wonder why theres extra fees Why not just combine all the BS fees into one fee called the "Bribe recovery fee"? | |
| | | | | Re: The New AT&T It merged with two large cable companies, (TCI and MediaOne.) Operating as AT&T Broadband, the unit became the largest cable company in the United States.
That division went down in flames, I bet they wish they still had the ability to offer DOCSIS 3 instead of DSL or VDSL | |
| | | | Right! I was about to say which AT&T are they talking about? The AT&T that spun off Lucent in 1995, bought TCI, TCG, and Media One, sold off AT&T Broadband to Comcast, spun off AT&T Wireless, got bought by SBC, which renamed itself back to AT&T and finally gobbled up Bell South and Cingular? What did I miss? | |
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| | All That Have AT&T Helped. Every one of us suckers with AT&T service helped through subscriptions to AT&T.
Is this where the $5.00 increase of my internet service has gone? | |
| KrKHeavy Artillery For The Little GuyPremium
join:2000-01-17
Tulsa, OK | I guess that's what they mean by "Regulatory Recovery Fee" A fee to cover the costs of buying off politicians and getting the laws they want and the policies they like enacted, while keeping regulators neutered and under their thumb.
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"Fascism should more properly be called corporatism because it is the merger of state and corporate power." -- Benito Mussolini
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| | | SBC SBC bought out AT&T and then took the AT&T name and then I guess took over AT&T's spending habits. | |
| fiberguyMy views are my own.Premium
join:2005-05-20
kudos:3 | Um... BAD reporting.. "AT&T".. huh? WHICH AT&T... all you are seeing reported on right now is a "name"... AT&T today is not AT&T of the past. It's a nice try to bash a company (which I don't personally like anyway) but you can't count the contributions of "AT&T" to those of "at&t" which is actually SBC Company with the purchased name "AT&T"..
But, if this kind of reporting supports a cause, then so be it.. no one is going to listen to logic anyway. | |
| | | This is the part.... This is the part of the forum discussion where I tell you all that $45,461,879 could easily have erased all network congestion issues for AT&T caused by overselling their wireless networks with smartphones with very likely some $$$ left over. | |
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