Mike Taylor, left, a lobbyist for the Unified Government of Kansas City, Kan., and Wyandotte County, confers with Assistant Kansas Secretary of State Eric Rucker, right, during a Senate committee debate on legislation dealing with local elections, Wednesday, Feb. 19, 2014, at the Statehouse in Topeka, Kan. Photo credit: John Hanna/AP
(ANTIMEDIA) Forget the penny stocks, amateurs, the greatest investment you can make in America is bribing the government to give you political favors.
According to research conducted by The Sunshine Foundation, an organization focused on corporate and government accountability,
After examining million records, including data on campaign contributions, lobbying expenditures, federal budget allocations and spending, we found that, on average, for every dollar spent on influencing politics, the nation’s most politically active corporations received $760 from the government. The $4.4 trillion total represents two-thirds of the $6.5 trillion that individual taxpayers paid into the federal treasury.
According to Zero Hedge, between 2007 and 2012, 200 of America’s most politically active corporations spent a combined $5.8 billion (with a B) on federal lobbying and campaign contributions. What they gave pales compared to what those same corporations got: $4.4 trillion (with a T) in federal business and support.
Said otherwise, by “spending” a paltry $6 billion to bribe the US government, US corporations are getting the direct benefit of two-thirds of US taxpayers’ labor!
See the shocking infographic below for more information:
Click here to read the entire report from The Sunshine Foundation.
Remember, “Sunshine Week” week goes from March 15-21 and is a time to advance the idea of transparency in government. President Obama must have missed the memo, as he just removed the White House from the constraints of the Freedom Of Information Act, as we noted earlier today.