What did it cost to get Sen. Bennet's sign-on to the TPP?

By Fred Elbel on 3 June 2015
Tags: 
globalism
TPP
government
Congress

It has been said that "we have the best Congress money can buy". But how can we be sure? 

Regarding the recent push to get the Senate to approve fast-track of the ​Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP), some interesting analyses have been released. Here are the key findings:

  • $1,148,971 in legalized bribes was given.
  • Goldman Sachs donated a whopping $195,550 - more than double the amount of the second largest donor, UPS.
  • Michael Bennet (D-CO), Murray, and Wyden received $105,900 between the three of them. ​All are running for re-election in 2016.
  • Michael Bennet received $53,700 in corporate campaign donations between January and March 2015, according to research by Channing (see below).

All this bribery is currently legal, because the Supreme Court has ruled that corporations are people and have the same rights as individual humans - including the right to donate to political candidates. The Court has also ruled that there can be no limit on election spending, thus proving an open door for corporate bribery in the political arena.

Transnational corporate interests paid only $1,148,971 in legalized bribes to get TPP fast-track through the senate - quite a paltry sum in exchange for potentially huge corporate profits at the expense of American sovereignty. That's a pretty good bang for the corporate buck.

 

More inforamtion

This Is How Little It Cost Goldman To Bribe America's Senators To Fast Track Obama's TPP Bill, by Tyler Durden, ZeroHedge, May 31, 2015.

Fast-tracking the TPP, meaning its passage through Congress without having its contents available for debate or amendments, was only possible after lots of corporate money exchanged hands with senators. The US Senate passed Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) – the fast-tracking bill – by a 65-33 margin on 14 May. Last Thursday, the Senate voted 62-38 to bring the debate on TPA to a close.

Using data from the Federal Election Commission, this chart shows all donations that corporate members of the US Business Coalition for TPP made to US Senate campaigns between January and March 2015, when fast-tracking the TPP was being debated in the Senate:
  • Out of the total $1,148,971 given, an average of $17,676.48 was donated to each of the 65 “yea” votes.
  • The average Republican member received $19,673.28 from corporate TPP supporters.
  • The average Democrat received $9,689.23 from those same donors...
Two days before the fast-track vote, Obama was a few votes shy of having the filibuster-proof majority he needed. Ron Wyden and seven other Senate Democrats announced they were on the fence on 12 May, distinguishing themselves from the Senate’s 54 Republicans and handful of Democrats as the votes to sway.
 
  • In just 24 hours, Wyden and five of those Democratic holdouts – Michael Bennet of Colorado, Dianne Feinstein of California, Claire McCaskill of Missouri, Patty Murray of Washington, and Bill Nelson of Florida – caved and voted for fast-track.
  • Bennet, Murray, and Wyden – all running for re-election in 2016 – received $105,900 between the three of them. Bennet, who comes from the more purple state of Colorado, got $53,700 in corporate campaign donations between January and March 2015, according to Channing’s research.
  • Almost 100% of the Republicans in the US Senate voted for fast-track...
 
 
Using data from the Federal Election Commission, the chart below (based on data from the following spreadsheet) shows all donations that corporate members of the US Business Coalition for TPP made to US Senate campaigns between January and March 2015, when fast-tracking the TPP was being debated in the Senate.
 
The result: it took a paltry $1.15 million in bribes to get everyone in the Senate on the same page. And the biggest shocker: with a total of $195,550 in "donations", or more than double the second largest donor UPS, was none other than Goldman Sachs.
 

 
 
 
TPP campaign contributions, by Taylor Channing, May 25, 2015.
 
 
For more in-depth information, see The secretive sovereignty-subverting Trans-Pacific Partnership, CAIRCO, updated May 31, 2015.
 
The Supreme Court Still Thinks Corporations Are People - If the Justices won't change their minds, we're going to have to amend the Constitution, The Atlantic, July 18, 2012.
 
Corporate Personhood, Reclaim America, 2015.
 
 
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