The GOP - Party of the Rich?

We hear a lot these days about tax cuts for the rich, corporate fat cats, favoring the rich while cutting the poor, elderly and sick off at the knees. For the last 80 years Democrats have been known as the party the working man, while the Republican’s we’re known as the party of big business that favors the interests of the wealthy.

Recently during the debt ceiling debate, Republicans have been accused of wanting to cut basic aid to the poor and sick while refusing to close loopholes and raise taxes on the wealthy. Democrats and liberals have continually stated Republicans are the party of the rich, that they are beholden to corporate special interests.

It is true that big business has not been fond of Socialism because of its association with high taxes, regulations and the nationalization of industry. It’s also true that big business will play along with a statist regime if they think they can gain an advantage on their competition.

During the days of FDR’s New Deal, big business was instrumental in drafting economic policy to their own advantage. Today big government programs, bailouts and regulatory agencies favor the interests of the rich and powerful. Obamacare is the largest entitlement program in history and it rewarded the American Medical Association along with large insurance and pharmaceutical companies for their political support. According to Jonah Goldberg, big Insurance and pharmaceutical companies gave about 2- 3 times more support to Obama than to McCain in 2008.The 700 billion dollars plus stimulus program didn’t help the economy a bit but took the hard earned money from taxpayers to payoff to big labor unions in exchange for their support.

Wall Street favored Obama and the Democrats by a margin of 2 to 1 during the 2008 elections. Goldman Sachs has been giving four times more to democrats than republicans since 2006, according to Jonah Goldberg of The National Review. Now we’re hearing a lot about how well Goldman Sacs has been doing.

Peter Schweizer of the National Review says that according to The Center for Responsive Politics advocacy; groups that fund elections have leaned heavily Democrat. Schweizer said, “In 2006, 17 of the top 25 contributors to 527 advocacy groups are funding liberal/Democratic causes, including liberal billionaires George Soros, and Peter Lewis.” He also mentioned that in 2004 the vast majority of advocacy group donors who gave in the millions were to Democrats. Schweizer noted the large fuss made about contributions to Republicans from oil and gas companies, when in fact donations to Democrats from lawyers and Hollywood were about six times as much. Schweizer says that in 2004, of the of the 5 US senators worth over 25 million, only one was Republican.

According to columnist John Stossel of Townhall magazine, the average household headed by a conservative is less wealthy than one headed by a liberal. According to a study of state income ratings in USA Today, the wealthiest states voted overwhelming Democrat while the poorest states voted Republican. John Stossel, citing Professor Arthur Brooks, noted that conservatives who earn less than liberals, gave 30% more to charity, this included all charities, and conservatives are even more likely to give blood. And they say Republicans are the party of the rich and greedy!