Tweet
Boehner acknowledges pressing Wall St. for donations
By Eric Zimmermann - 02/04/10 02:37 PM ET
Dems To Wall Street: GOP's Not The Party For You
First Posted: 02- 4-10 01:35 PM | Updated: 02- 4-10 02:02 PM
***********
I'm not sure that Mel Watt meant for that quote to sound the way it does to me, but that's his problem.
Rep. Paul Ryan - could be another real human being worth backing in the Republican party.
By Eric Zimmermann - 02/04/10 02:37 PM ET
The Wall Street Journal reported this morning that Boehner met with Jamie Dimon at a Capitol Hill restaurant and urged him to help the GOP heading into 2010.
Boehner confirmed that anecdote this morning
"I did in fact have a conversation with Mr. Dimon to talk abotu some of the bizarre policies coming out of this administration," Boehner told reporters today. "I also pressed them to help our team."
Boehner said he was frustrated that the finance sector had favored Democrats in the current campaign cycle.
"The issue here is that Democrats continue to get more than 2-to-1 over republicans the money that's on Wall Street," he said.
While the finance sector has donated more to Democrats, the discrepancy doesn't seem to be as large as Boehner suggested.
According to the Center for Responsive Politics, firms in the "Finance/Insurance/Real Estate" category have given 58% of their donations to Democrats since 2008, compared to 42% to Republicans. If you narrow that category to "Finance/Credit Companies," the margin is 57%-43%.
Boehner confirmed that anecdote this morning
"I did in fact have a conversation with Mr. Dimon to talk abotu some of the bizarre policies coming out of this administration," Boehner told reporters today. "I also pressed them to help our team."
Boehner said he was frustrated that the finance sector had favored Democrats in the current campaign cycle.
"The issue here is that Democrats continue to get more than 2-to-1 over republicans the money that's on Wall Street," he said.
While the finance sector has donated more to Democrats, the discrepancy doesn't seem to be as large as Boehner suggested.
According to the Center for Responsive Politics, firms in the "Finance/Insurance/Real Estate" category have given 58% of their donations to Democrats since 2008, compared to 42% to Republicans. If you narrow that category to "Finance/Credit Companies," the margin is 57%-43%.
First Posted: 02- 4-10 01:35 PM | Updated: 02- 4-10 02:02 PM
Democrats reacted possessively on Thursday to Republican Minority Leader John Boehner's effort to persuade JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon that the financial industry should be giving Republicans money rather than Democrats.
Boehner's overture to Dimon, in which he made the case that Republicans better represent the industry's interests, was reported by the Wall Street Journal this morning in a story about how GOP fund-raisers are trying to capitalize on bankers' regrets over backing President Obama.
Dimon "has to decide for himself who deserves his support," Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) told HuffPost. But, he said: "I don't think Boehner or any of the Republican leadership have a grand claim to make."
Waxman, chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee, said he could think of two specific examples offhand of why Wall Street is better off with Democrats: the bailout and the stimulus.
During the bailout debate, Waxman said, Dimon personally called Waxman and "impressed upon me how much he needed." It was delivered with bipartisan support, said Waxman, but the GOP now wants "to divorce themselves from Bush's bailouts." The retreat is "quite opportunistic," he said. "You would think that none of them voted for it."
[..]
Rep. Mel Watt (D-N.C.), the chairman of a Financial Services subcommittee, told HuffPost that "there is no Republican or Democratic slant to" Wall Street issues.
"The great thing about the Financial Services Committee and those issues," he told HuffPost, "is that they are not partisan. Unfortunately, Republicans have tried to make it partisan by stacking the committee with ideologues.
"I just think it's unfortunate that everything has become partisan," he said.
[..]
Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.), asked about Boehner's argument to Dimon, said that neither party should be gunning for such support. "We need to be the party for transparency, clean rules, and a pro-market, not a pro-big business party. I am worried about crony capitalism and sort of the casino-style capitalism we've had on Wall Street...I'm very worried about both parties succumbing to that stuff," he said.
Boehner's overture to Dimon, in which he made the case that Republicans better represent the industry's interests, was reported by the Wall Street Journal this morning in a story about how GOP fund-raisers are trying to capitalize on bankers' regrets over backing President Obama.
Dimon "has to decide for himself who deserves his support," Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) told HuffPost. But, he said: "I don't think Boehner or any of the Republican leadership have a grand claim to make."
Waxman, chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee, said he could think of two specific examples offhand of why Wall Street is better off with Democrats: the bailout and the stimulus.
During the bailout debate, Waxman said, Dimon personally called Waxman and "impressed upon me how much he needed." It was delivered with bipartisan support, said Waxman, but the GOP now wants "to divorce themselves from Bush's bailouts." The retreat is "quite opportunistic," he said. "You would think that none of them voted for it."
[..]
Rep. Mel Watt (D-N.C.), the chairman of a Financial Services subcommittee, told HuffPost that "there is no Republican or Democratic slant to" Wall Street issues.
"The great thing about the Financial Services Committee and those issues," he told HuffPost, "is that they are not partisan. Unfortunately, Republicans have tried to make it partisan by stacking the committee with ideologues.
"I just think it's unfortunate that everything has become partisan," he said.
[..]
Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.), asked about Boehner's argument to Dimon, said that neither party should be gunning for such support. "We need to be the party for transparency, clean rules, and a pro-market, not a pro-big business party. I am worried about crony capitalism and sort of the casino-style capitalism we've had on Wall Street...I'm very worried about both parties succumbing to that stuff," he said.
I'm not sure that Mel Watt meant for that quote to sound the way it does to me, but that's his problem.
Rep. Paul Ryan - could be another real human being worth backing in the Republican party.
Comment