President-Come-Lately

David Donnelly

August 30, 2004

President George W. Bush won't condem the ads produced by the Swift Boat Veterans For Truth. All he's managed to do is pledge to regulate more closely the law allowing such groups to operate. Poppycock, says those who know Bush's stance on campaign finance reform. As Donnelly reminds us, Bush rewards handsomely those who contribute to his campaign.  

David Donnelly is director of Campaign Money Watch,  the only campaign finance reform 527 group. It works to hold elected officials accountable for opposing comprehensive reform and for special favors they do for contributors. Campaign Money Watch will engage in a voter education campaign this fall regarding President Bush’s paybacks to big contributors.

President George W. Bush’s Johnny-come-lately position to silence organizations known as 527s should be seen for what it is: a political move. Bush has a poor record on campaign finance reform—he only grudgingly signed the McCain-Feingold law he now claims to be defending and he refuses to sign a pledge put together by leading reform organizations to fix the presidential public financing system he was largely responsible for breaking.

So as voters (and reporters) tune into the Republican convention, they should keep in the front of their minds two glaring facts:

1. No politician has collected more money for his campaigns for office than President George W. Bush; and

2. Bush has done absolutely nothing to rein in the money that he raises for his own campaigns.

Ever since the 2000 race, when he became the first candidate to win the presidency after opting out of the fundraising limits put in place in the post-Watergate era, Bush has raised at least $424 million for his own campaigns, and tens of millions more for the Florida recount in 2000 and his inaugural 2001. This is almost $150 million more than the total raised by his opponents Al Gore and John Kerry.

The Bush campaign says it has received more than one million individual donations for this year’s race.  However, more than half of his take, 53 percent, has come from donors giving the maximum, $2,000 (compared to 34 percent for John Kerry). Though people obviously give for ideological or personal reasons, in general it is fair to say that many of the people giving at this level have an identifiable economic interest, be it lower taxes, looser regulations, legislation or no-bid contracts of benefit to their company or industry. 

What has President Bush done to earn such robust support from America’s wealthiest and best-connected donors? Let us count the ways.

• According to the Center for Public Integrity, the Bush administration has awarded billions in Iraq reconstruction contracts to companies whose executives and PACs have given approximately $500,000 to his campaigns. Most infamously, the Bush White House awarded Vice President Dick Cheney’s former corporation, Halliburton, with a multi-billion, no-bid contract for work in Iraq—and now the company is saying it cannot account for how it spent $1.8 billion of the cash it received.
  
• Bush regularly calls for drastic limits on jury awards in malpractice cases. In response, doctors and other health professionals have given him more than $7.8 million since 1999.
  
• Bush's EPA has issued regulations weakening the Clean Air Act, allowing utilities to escape installing new emissions-control technology on their plants. Individuals and PACs tied to the electric utilities industry have given $1.2 million for his presidential campaigns.
  
• Bush's energy task force, chaired by Vice President Dick Cheney, logged more than 700 direct contacts with energy and natural resources company representatives—compared to fewer than 30 with non-industry representatives including environmentalists—and ended up recommending policies straight from memos written by industry lobbyists. In addition to the money noted above from electric utilities, the oil and gas sector has generated nearly $4 million for Bush's White House campaigns.
  
• Bush has opposed legislation to raise fuel efficiency standards and appointed a General Motors lobbyist as his chief of staff. In addition, last year's tax legislation, which he signed, gives a tax deduction of up to $100,000 for purchases of Hummers and other large SUVs. Automakers and car dealers have given him nearly $3.3 million for his two presidential campaigns.
  
• After 9/11, Bush's EPA backed off its original intention of regulating chemical plant security. (Like the airlines who were responsible for airport security prior to 9/11, the chemical industry has been allowed to police itself.) He has also appointed several friends of the chemical lobby to top government positions, including a majority of the Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board. The industry has given him $1.3 million since 1999.
   
• Last year, Bush signed legislation that gave America's seniors a prescription drug benefit that places no limits on the prices pharmaceuticals can charge and explicitly prohibits the re-importation of cheaper drugs from countries like Canada. The industry, which stands to gain an estimated $139 billion in new profits in the next years thanks to this new law—assuming Congress doesn't change its mind—has given Bush more than $1.3 million since 1999.
  
• Bush pressed Congress to back off its efforts to restrict how many TV stations a single media conglomerate could own, going so far as to threaten to veto vital appropriations legislation last winter. Contributions to Bush from the TV, radio and cable industries total more than $473,000 since 1999.
  

Bush's paybacks to his big contributors recall the days of Sen. Boies Penrose, who famously declared in 1896, “I believe in the division of labor. You send us to Congress; we pass laws under which you make money...and out of your profits, you further contribute to our campaign funds to send us back again to pass more laws to enable you to make more money.”

It remains to be seen whether Bush will get four more years to continue his side of the bargain, or whether voters will reject this pay-to-play politics. Getting rid of or regulating 527s does nothing to address putting White House policy on the auction block.