Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Dem Leaders Backing Occupy Wall Street Have Received The Most Contributions From . . . Wall Street…


Via Heritage Action:

Despite their support of the Occupy Wall Street movement, (who, unlike the Tea Party, believe government is the answer to our economic problems), Democrats have enjoyed large paychecks from the industry.

President Obama, former-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), Congresswoman and chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL), and Congressman Barney Frank (D-MA) have all raised significant funds from Wall Street — and these numbers are just since 2008!

This information was pulled from OpenSecrets.org. They don’t quite tell the whole story, since Presidential donations are listed differently than other politicians. So the President’s funds are much higher. He’s actually raised $3.9 million just this year so far. But, he has raised nearly $12 million in Wall Street donations for the DNC. In total, that’s more than all the Republican Presidential candidates combined have received from Wall Street.

Yet President Obama supports the Occupy Wall Street Movement. He said that their protests were a reflection of a “broad-based frustration about how our financial system works.” He has also adopted the term “99%” when talking about raising taxes.

Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) has also spoken favorably for the protesters, saying “I support the message to the establishment, whether it’s Wall Street or the political establishment and the rest, that change has to happen.” Where was this support when the Tea Party was taking on the political establishment, hmm?

Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) parroted Pelosi by saying that these protests are “symbolic of the frustration that middle class folks and working people feel that the wealthy always seem to have the wind at their backs.” She went on to say that, “[w]e understand their frustration, we applaud their activism and hopefully they’re going to help get the Republicans in Washington’s attention so we shift the Republican’s focus from just Barack Obama’s job, to everyone’s job,”

Not surprisingly, Debbie Wasserman Schultz also denounced the Tea Party.

And finally, Congressman Barney Frank (D-MA), who has raked in more from Wall Street than Pelosi and Wasserman Schultz combined. Just after announcing his support for Occupy Wall Street, Congressman Frank headed to a fundraiser — with Wall Street bankers. How’s that for hypocrisy? Of course, he had an answer for that, saying:

“If you take money from them, but you don’t vote [for] the things they want, how does that put you in conflict?”

I can think of a few ways.

Keep reading…

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