This study from the Sunlight Foundation proves it. Your humble correspondent ofttimes rails against corruption, and then watches as idiot voters re-elect thieving scumbags. Hopefully this will get spread far and wide, and voters will wake up:

Fixed Fortunes: Biggest corporate political interests spend billions, get trillions

Between 2007 and 2012, 200 of America’s most politically active corporations spent a combined $5.8 billion on federal lobbying and campaign contributions. A year-long analysis by the Sunlight Foundation suggests, however, that what they gave pales compared to what those same corporations got: $4.4 trillion in federal business and support.

That figure, more than the $4.3 trillion the federal government paid the nation’s 50 million Social Security recipients over the same period, is the result of an unprecedented effort to quantify the less-examined side of the campaign finance equation: Do political donors get something in return for what they give?


And Hoo Boy, do they EVER get a return on that investment:

Overall, the Fixed Fortune 200’s PACs, employees and their family members gave $597 million to political committees and disclosed spending $5.2 billion on lobbying. They make this enormous investment in politics in large part because their businesses are inextricably entwined with government decisions — including spending decisions.

For example, the federal government issued contracts to purchase goods and services that totaled a little more that $3 trillion during the period; companies among the top 200 corporate political givers won $1 trillion of that, a third of the total. The Treasury Department managed $410 billion in loans and other assistance issued under the Troubled Asset Relief Program, created by Congress to cope with the 2008 financial crisis; of that amount, $298 million, about 73 percent, went to 16 firms among the Fixed Fortune 200. When the Federal Reserve took extraordinary measures in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, it funneled nearly $2.8 trillion through 29 Fixed Fortune firms. The companies that participated the most in politics got huge returns.

It’s BRIBERY. Not because a cranky old fart says so on this blog, but because the evidence says so. The numbers say so. The results say so.

So, Gentle Reader, now you know. Here’s hoping everyone remembers this when election day rolls around. Don’t listen to their speeches, throw away their junk mail, turn off their commercials; look instead at their votes and who may be buying said votes.

Follow the money. Follow your nose. They both will lead you to where the Rats are, and show you what the loathsome critters are up to. It’s never anything good.

Mr. Blunt and Cranky