Damn! My bank and my phone company both give to the Republicans!

The Pharma chart is the most telling about what's going on with Health care.

Doesn't it make sense that companies would give mostly to the party in power? Unless all the data is from this year, I don't see that the above tells us much.

Yonah raises one interesting question, but I think there's another.

Let's say you own a factory in Houston. The area is so republican that it doesn't make sense to contribute to the dem's all you can do is pick the republican that you like best (or hate the least). The converse would be true in California.

So we see media companies, centered in NY & CA giving to the dems, while Walmart, centered in the south gives to the republican party. I'd like to see this analysis redone after accounting for the red/blue-ness of the companies' center of operations.

It's sort of an odd collection of companies--I mean, it ranges from AT&T, which gave $9 million via PACs, down to Kiss My Face, which has $300 in individual contributions. That's a huge range; how did these particular companies get included?

Incidentally, AG's point is even stronger when you read the fine print and see that individual contributions include "contributions by individuals connected to the organization, like employees". Forget about whether the factory owner in Wyoming is going to pick a Republican he likes best; due to the demographics, the majority of the employees are going to be donating to Republicans, regardless of the "beliefs" of the company (if companies can be said to believe things). Unless I'm misunderstanding how the graph works.

How is Fox on the Democratic side? I'm confused.

Mmhm. Now let me see Mobil and Exxon.

The entirety of media corps in America give to Democrats...

So I guess the media truly does have a Liberal bias.

I think it's interesting that MTV's been separated out from its parent company, Viacom. I suppose the fact that the all-individual contributions skew so far to the left make it worthy of note, but it's making me wish more of these huge corporations could be broken down into their different divisions for comparison's sake.

I'm confused. Don't companies donate to political parties in order to influence legislation? What's with all the cosmetics companies donating so much on both sides? I can't think of any influence that's having in their industry's favor, unless we're talking FDA.

Not so surprised about Amway considering their co-founder ran on the Republican ticket for Governor here in Michigan. :P

i find it interesting that UPS is firmly on the Republican side, yet last i had heard, they had completely stopped advertising on FOX news. (i wrote them an e-mail thanking them for it.)

i dunno. it's interesting to note who supports what, yet it seems that even companies see a line between Republicans and extreme right-wing rhetoric.

I know which companies to boycott. Thanks.

You can use Credo for your phone service, which supports progressive causes....

Yeah, this should definitely be taken with a grain of salt. It's also important to remember the company's "ethics." Labor practices, for instance: Gap's notorious use of sweat labor despite the company's more "democratic" contributions, etc.

A GREAT REASON TO JOIN THE LIBERTARIAN PARTY
Our 2 party system sucks!

I didn't see GE anywhere. That seems odd considering General Electric practically bought Obama's presidency.

where did you get this information from? just off the top of my head disney is owned by conservative republicans there is no way they donate most of their money to democrats. and a lot of other ones on here don't look any where near correct to me

As hostile as Democrats are to businesses, I am surprised that there are any on the blue side.

they all are interested in money....regardless of their political background and furthermore, they are all partisan to one party over the other.

i'd like to see a chart listing the political contributions of labor unions. just kidding I already know what it will look like.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA did that really just say Fox was democratic BULLSHIT

Interesting. This tells me that if I want pharmaceuticals to cure me I want republican. If I want MTv, I swing to the democratic side. If I want companies that do research to come up with improvements to my life, I go republican. If I want all natural lip balm, I go democrat. Thanks. It all makes so much sense now.

Uh, pharmaceutical companies are in favor of the health care bill. They want guaranteed gubment money and everyone prescribed their drugs. Say no to the so called "health care" reform.

Umm, where are AIG? Goldman Sachs? Where is the entire pack that got billions in bailouts and trillions in guarantees? Who the heck cares what Burt's Bees donates to? Was it ever in doubt? I'd like to see what the return on lobbying and contributions for the financial and insurance sectors, or how about the construction mafia? This tool is useless, it misses the biggest recipients of government favours in recent history.

Regarding that point about picking sides, why pick? Most large companies just give to both, and get favours regardless who wins. You people would make very bad lobbyists.

Our country is based on thievery and greed this land is our land now and your land is our land now, there are a lot of different shoes (if they have any) that need to be walked in before we go spitting off about all you got to do is work hard to get what you want(subjective). Its amazing how much the democrat vs republican thing is wasting time which there should never be a two party system to begin with but people need to belong to something instinctively because we have no backbone or we go off what are parents were, traditionalists. We are rome and we will fall. But when it does and there are no jobs and the corrupted system fails you just pick yourself up by the bootstrap. CONDOLENCES

government by the people for the people . . . not government by corporation for corporation

seems to me socialism has failed every where it has been instituted. some government is good no doubt. but none of us want to be told what to do and when. a lot of you seem to knock successful people. People who make money. but what would be the point of trying if there were no reward. and if we did not have the rich to pay 80% of the taxes, what would happen to all our great social programs? i say it is better for all us to try and become successful and "rich" than to want to tear down the rich because they were successful.
Greed is not the sole province of the rich. greed of power is just as wrong. Politicians left and right love that power. they love to dole out the funds. they love to see the people beg. they love to pick favorites. where as the market place is a cruel and honest mechanism. the weak fade the strong flourish. the society benefits. we are all better of making our own success and providing a means of success for those less fortunate. the hand up not the hand out.

You have an amazing delusion going on in the states, namely that big corporate business has an interest in anything but their own bottom line.
Corporations support political parties and politicians in order to get favors from them in turn. In all functioning democracies, this is called corruption.
The people developing drugs at big pharma probably have an interest in helping people, as their task is to develop drugs for this purpose. However, the business administrations of these corporations care for nothing but the greatest profit for their shareholders, anything else would actually be a breach of law. The same corporations that lobby your politicians also finance your media. American media is almost completely funded by advertising. Advertisers, being the main source of income for corporate media, needless to say have a lot of input into what opinions and agendas will be pushed on the channels they pour money into. Media in turn has to please their advertisers in order to maximize the profit of their shareholders. To believe that you have freedom of choice and an uncensored media is naive. Next time you see an editorial in your newspaper, or watch a TV show host make a political statement, ask yourself this question: whose interests is he protecting?
Greetings from Sweden

I hope the first people get their land back and the white american people are enslaved, and or systematically eradicated. What else would be neat democrats and republicans should fight to the death and aired on fox. mandatory sterilization or soylent green hows that for political views. I think hunting hunters should be legal with a proper government approved license of course, I would invest in the tv channel that hosted the shows that that would create oh snap its almost hunter season god bless america and pass the ammunition. what a beauty.. Anywho HIgh fructose corn syrup, asbestos, swine flu, facebook, bot flies, mentos, sham wow, bank statements oh my, hey kd what mental illness did you have and what pill cured it you arent with pfizer are you just kidding but really what did the trick and do you think you were born with it or a past experience caused it or were there any social or environmental factor?

Love the fact that all prescription companies are supporting republicans. Just shows me who the real drug pushers are. Talk about bad drug dealers. I am sure as hell not democrate and actually I am on the far far right by this i mean our government needs to be taken down a level. They should not be getting paid by big companies and by us as citizens to vote certain ways. Its called a bribe. No matter how you put donations are bribes for individuals to vote. And because they are all money hungary bastards they will choose who will support their campaign more so then what is right. Why do we pay federal taxes anyways its a waste of money and so aren't their programs

Americans talk on and on about how "free" they are, yet you only have TWO POLITICAL PARTIES. Come on! In a country of like 180,000,000 people, you have TWO viable choices for your votes. Democracy my ass. I live in a country of with a population of about 5 million and we still have four parties! How can you expect your government to accurately and fairly represent the wishes and beliefs of the people that way?

Are you guys f**kin kiddin me? Oh my god my phone and bank give to the republicans. ohhh dear thats just terrible!!! Grow the f**k up. Complain that any corporation is allowed to give to any political party. Neither party deserve contributions from corporations. Instaed of complaining that the party you disfavor is gettin handouts complain that the corporations have control over political platforms and or political decision making. These fundamental principles should be made by the average citizen not money hungry corporations. Don't you guys realize that neither party is lookin our for YOUR best interest? You think the democrats care more about your well being then the republicans? Neither care about you. They care about big buisness. Who's writing them the f**kin check. You americans are so oblivious of how both party systems are out to f**k you in the a$$ and take your money regardless. Most of you represent the most targeted group. The middle class. Who the f**k do you think Obama is working for? honestly? how much money has he givin to the corporate elite? Most of his f**kin presidential cabinet are ex-wall street. did you get money back from the 819 billion dollar stimulus package that Obama gave out? $819,000,000,000 in one f**kin day he gave that to them!!!! He gave that much money to people that don't deserve anymore. 1% of the world's population controls 40% of the wealth. Thanks to obama he's increaing that gap. It's not democrat or republican. It's the f**ked up system that all of you allow to just go on and never question. START QUESTIONING.
“The liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than their democratic state itself. That, in its essence, is fascism - ownership of government by an individual, by a group,” Franklin D. Roosevelt.

poor doesn't mean slackers. some of us come from disabled parents and have to fight to get into college because its so damn expensive. i'm as poor as it gets and i have no intention of staying this way--my parents are certainly not lazy or freeloaders. they're disabled. think about that before you judge someone, cause if you don't you're no better than the freeloader.

Um it is illegal for Corporations to make direct contributions to political candidates.

The numbers being reported in this article are the sums of the individual employees and who the employees were supporting.

It makes no sense to speak of a public corporation in terms like "Dont rich republicans own X"... Unless it's a fact that a majority of the shareholders are rich republicans , you can't make that conclusion

Why should my dollar be taxed differently than someone else's dollar?
Isn't a dollar a dollar and a citizen a citizen?

If my neighbor makes $40,000 and I make $41,000, does that make me a bad guy because I'm richer?

Would a person who feels rich people are bad turn down a raise at work? or change jobs for a better salary? or go to college to be able to earn more money?

Except for govt jobs, a job exists because someone coughed up some start up money and worked to build a company. Should that person be eliminated?

I'm a business owner and I'm not a Republican. I don't consider myself a liberal either...just educated.

Buying off politicians is no answer to doing wrong on either side of the fence. If I felt like there was a bill that would be passed that would help my business, but harm others, then I wouldn't try to get it passed.

You can still live by the Golden Rule and be successful. Greed usually hurts everyone.

To me, the entire basis of the party system is kind of backwards. The Republican Party is made up largely of Christian right wing people that you THINK would want to help their brethren, give to the poor, and provide for the less fortunate. However this is the opposite! So strange. For about a dozen reasons, including my Christian religion and values, my upscale socio-economic level and where I live in the Midwest, I should be a Republican, but I can't align myself with the selfish, greedy, let's sell out to big business and let capitalism run wild with greed, Republican way of thinking.

Fox News and those who swallow its swill just makes me ill. Will none of these people have a free thought of their own?

To robert 10:38 am on October 3, 2009:

It would be nice if you even knew what you are talking about.

>>>your right, most millionaires are not like bill gates, they were never poor, >>>they got it from their rich parents

Don't look now but Gates was never poor. His dad was a wealthy lawyer.

You concept of economics and history are equally flawed.

>>>I would willingly give an extra 10,000 out of my 60,000 per year income >>>for that dream.

Again, don't look now, but in America, if you wish, you can give as much
as you want for whatever you wish. So far no law compels you.

So what is stopping you???????

Funny to see American car companies donating to republicans who would have let them go bankrupt

I just don't want to be giving a de facto donation to the Republican Party every time I buy Kleenex so I'm interested to know which countries are donating what tonwho