Free Republic

The idea of complaining about the people funding the conservative movement seems a bit odd, after all, they cut a lot of big checks. They fund think tanks and websites, the very heart of the conservative movement, and those organizations have done some great work in the past. The only problem is it’s not the past anymore, and the old model no longer works. The people funding the left have out-flanked the right, and it is long past time for the right to catch up. Yes, it was a good year for Republican House candidates, and depending on how Georgia...

According to a New York Post article (May 22, 2016), in just two years, Hillary Clinton -- former first lady, senator from New York and secretary of state -- collected over $21 million in speaking fees. These fees were paid by Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Deutsche Bank, Fidelity Investments, UBS, Bank of America and several hedge fund companies. In 2015, lobbyists spent $3.22 billion lobbying Congress. In 2013 and 2014, just 10 chemical companies and allied organizations spent more than $154 million lobbying the federal government. The Center for Responsive Politics in 2013 reported that The Dow Chemical Co. "posted...

Political analysis of the Las Vegas debate immigration dust-up between Sens. Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio is missing a key ingredient: the money factor. You can read the lips of the candidates till the cows come home. But you'll get to the truth much faster when you learn where pro-amnesty power brokers have placed their bets and hitched their wagons. Rubio's brazenly fraudulent campaign to paint Cruz as soft on illegal immigration is a flabbergasting attempt to distract from the Florida junior senator's faithful allegiance to the open-borders donor class. Here's what you need to know: Facebook, Microsoft and Silicon...

You are going to hear a lot about money in politics in the coming year and a half. Not just the amounts of donations to various campaigns and Super PACs, but about the very concept of money in politics. It’s evil, they’ll say. It’s corrupting. But it’s not, not even a little. Hillary Clinton, laughably, made her call to limit “dark money” known long before the Clinton Foundation admitted it had to refile at least five years’ worth of taxes because of a failure to disclose millions in “donations.”But money is necessary for candidates to get out their message. Even...

Donald Trump's kids and Paris Hilton's siblings were born rich. That gave them a big advantage in life. Unfair! Inequality in wealth has grown. Today the richest 1 percent of Americans own a third of the assets. That's not fair! But wherever people are free, that's what happens. Some people are luckier, smarter or just better at making money. Often they marry other wealthy, well-connected people. Over time, these advantages compound. Globalization increases the effect. This month's issue of Forbes says the world now has 1,826 billionaires, and some struggle to find enough parking places for their jets. President Obama...

Richest U.S. Senator, John Kerry, Rails Against 'Corrupting' Money in Politics in Farewell Address January 30, 2013 By DANIEL HALPERJohn Kerry, the richest U.S. senator, railed against the "corrupting" power of money in politics in his farewell address today on the floor of the United States Senate: (click to the site to view the video) "There's another challenge that we must address and it is the corrupting force of the vast sums of money necessary to run for office," said Kerry. "The unending chase for money I believe threatens to steal our democracy itself. I've used the word 'corrupting' and...

...........in Wisconsin, it seems somewhat difficult to get anyone to refer to government unions as a “special interest.” Unions refer to themselves as “the middle class,” or the “hard-working people” of the state — as if every member of the middle class worked for a state or local government. To the Left, any collection of individuals that uses their own money to influence a public debate is known as an “interest group.” Conversely, if a similar group uses taxpayer money boosted through union dues to do the same thing, it is known as a “grassroots organization.” ..........Not only are unions...

George Soros is one of the big sugar daddies of the Democratic Party. He also is the ruler of an archipelago of so-called 527 groups that pose as non-partisan activists groups, but in fact are often hyper-partisan (such as MoveOn.Org), and are often employed by Democrats to influence elections. Soros, for years, has been the top funder of such groups. His influence among Democrats is widespread and enduring (and was well-documented by David Horowitz and Richard Poe in their book, The Shadow Party: How George Soros, Hillary Clinton and Sixties Radicals Seized Control of the Democratic Party). His pet think-tank,...

"I got elected. You may not criticize me." OK, the incumbents don't put it that way. They say: "There's too much money in politics! We need campaign finance reform." And they get it. "Reform" sounds good. McCain-Feingold and a host of state laws would protect us from the evil influence of big money. But that's nonsense. When our behemoth government has the power to spend more than $2 trillion every year, big money will find a way to try to influence it. It's the little guys, who aren't in office, who are silenced by "reform." McCain-Feingold makes it illegal for...

Most are aware that political contributions from foreign citizens are illegal in America, and we approve because we believe that only citizens should finance our political campaigns. Even if a foreign national owns a great deal of property in the United States, he's not allowed to vote or contribute to political campaigns whose outcomes would affect his property. Why shouldn't this be true on all political levels? Why should someone "foreign" to your county be able to contribute to a county official he can't vote for when his contribution may sway the election much more than your vote? Why should...