Rep. Hank Johnson, who said that "Republicans favor big business, and big business favors Republicans" while speaking on campaign finance disclosure, cited Goldman Sachs and BP as the big businesses that favor Republicans. Let's take a look at campaign contributions to political parties via OpenSecrets. Goldman Sachs Here is a chart of political contributions made to both Democrats and Republicans from 1990 until 2010 by Goldman Sachs. (click charts to enlarge)
Notice the totals. Goldman Sachs made $31,837,927 worth of campaign contributions in that time. Of that, $20,376,522 were made to Democrats, while $11,348,215 were made to Republicans. A margin of almost 2-1 Democrats to Republicans. Big business donation by Goldman Sachs: Favors Democrats. BP Now, let's take a look at campaign contributions made by BP to both parties.
Of the total donations of $6,212,279 donated by BP to the parties, $4,398,728 was given to Republicans as $1,805,751 was given to Democrats. A margin of close to 4-1 favoring Republicans. It should be noted that BP has donated $25,625,648 less to the parties than Goldman Sachs. BP donations: Favors Republicans. Total contributions from Goldman Sachs and BP combined to political parties: Democrats: $22,182,273 Republicans: $15,746,943 Of the big businesses Johnson uses as examples that "favor Republicans" as the "Republicans favor big business", Republicans have received $6,435,330 less than Democrats in campaign contributions. It looks as if Hank Johnson didn't check the facts and instead went along with Democrat talking points and scare tactics before making his statements. After all, it's well-known that despite Republicans receiving more campaign contributions than Democrats from BP, President Barack Obama was the single biggest recepient of BP cash. An inconvenient reality check for Rep. Hank Johnson.