Wednesday, July 02, 2008

Money and Politics

Today, the US Senate voted against the energy bill (S.3044 – Consumer-First Energy Act of 2008 ).

According to Reuters, “the energy package would revoke $17 billion in tax breaks extended to big oil companies like Exxon Mobil Corp and slap a 25 percent windfall profits tax on firms that don’t invest in new energy sources.” MAPLight.org’s research team revealed that oil producers gave an average of $134,821 to each of the 43 senators that voted no and an average of $37,373 to each of the 51 senators that voted yes. (See Methodology below)

The 6 Republicans that broke with their party by voting yes got an average of $64,362 from oil producers, a stark contrast to the average of $134,719 given to each of the 41 Republicans that voted no.

Two Democrats broke with their party by voting no, Majority Leader Harry Reid - (NV)* and Mary Landrieu (LA). Senator Landrieu received $304,450 from the oil producers, while Reid received $38,350. Landrieu’s total is the second highest received by Senate Democrats (after Clinton), and the 6th highest overall.

Clinton, Obama and McCain did not vote on the bill

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