- WASHINGTON, D.C. ñ
As President Bush prepares to launch a multimillion-dollar campaign ad
blitz, Public Citizen today released a report outlining who helped pay
for the campaign ads and what favors they have received during his presidency.
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- In the report, "Bush Campaign Ads: Brought to You
by... Special Interests," Public Citizen details how much money representatives
from key industries ñ including finance, real estate, communications,
energy, health care, and insurance ñ have helped raise and lists
the tax breaks, regulatory changes, legislative favors and plum appointments
Bush has given his backers. Many of the beneficiaries of his policies are
Rangers and Pioneers, terms Bush gives donors who bundle contributions
that total at least $200,000 and $100,000 respectively.
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- The ads will run on cable networks and will target voters
in 17 battleground states. Bush had spent at least $41 million of his campaign
money by the end of January; his war chest holds another $110 million.
He is expected to raise another $50 million before September's nominating
convention and accept $75 million in public financing for the two months
before Election Day.
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- Public Citizen's report finds that the 416 Bush Rangers
and Pioneers have bundled together at least $58.1 million for the 2004
campaign and that 90 percent of them (374) represent the special interests
of America's corporations.
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- Public Citizen's report details how Bush has given tax
breaks that benefit the finance industry, made it easier for real estate
developers to build on wetlands and in the Florida Everglades, reneged
on a campaign pledge to regulate carbon dioxide emissions (pleasing the
electric utility and mining industries), increased the amount of public
land available for oil and gas exploration and coal mining, filled top
Interior Department positions with executives from the mining industry,
and aided the pharmaceutical industry by pushing pro-industry Medicare
drug legislation.
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- "When people watch TV this week and see the ads
touting President Bush and his record, they should know that major corporations
helped pay for those ads," said Public Citizen President Joan Claybrook.
"More important, they should know that these industries got their
money's worth from Bush administration decisions worth billions of dollars."
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- Added Frank Clemente, director of Public Citizen's Congress
Watch, "This report shows the insidious influence of money in politics.
The Bush campaign's unprecedented fundraising has made this administration
more indebted to special interests than any in recent times."
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- Among the industries highlighted in the report are:
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- * The financial industry. Bankers, stockbrokers, venture
capitalists and wealthy private investors have contributed at least $38.4
million to Bush's campaign efforts in 2000 and 2004 and produced more Rangers
and Pioneers than any other industry ñ 73 who have bundled at least
$10.8 million this cycle. Bush's tax cut dramatically reduced the "double
taxation" of dividends, the securities industry's No. 1 priority.
His other major tax cuts benefited the securities industry and its CEOs,
who personally will save hundreds of thousands if not millions of dollars
in taxes a year. Social Security privatization, likely to be a top Bush
priority in a second term, would shift trillions of dollars of retirement
savings to private sector investment accounts.
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- * Real estate developers. The real estate industry has
donated $32.2 million to Bush campaign efforts in 2000 and 2004, and 37
real estate developers have qualified as Rangers or Pioneers in 2004, bundling
at least $5.4 million. The Bush administration has made it easier for developers
to build on wetlands, has attempted to narrow the Clean Water Act so that
it no longer covers many ponds, streams and wetlands, and has appointed
crusading opponents of the Endangered Species Act to key positions at the
Interior Department.
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- * Electric utilities. The electric utility industry has
donated nearly $6 million to Bush campaign efforts in 2000 and 2004. In
return, in 2000 three industry Pioneers got slots on the transition team
at the U.S. Department of Energy. The administration also rewrote a key
Clean Air Act rule to effectively neutralize existing government lawsuits
against energy companies and prevent future challenges. Bush launched a
"Clear Skies" initiative that would dramatically delay emissions
reductions and do nothing to contend with carbon dioxide, and has proposed
mercury regulations indistinguishable from industry proposals.
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- * Oil and gas. Oil and gas companies gave $15.8 million
to Bush campaign efforts in 2000 and 2004. Bush has opened federal land
for oil and gas exploration and coal mining, targeted Wyoming's Powder
River Basin for coalbed methane drilling, and required federal agencies
to consider how agency rules will affect energy supply, distribution and
use.
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- * Mining companies. The mining industry has contributed
at least $3.1 million to Bush campaign efforts in the 2000 and 2004 cycles.
Mining executives have been appointed to top posts in the Interior Department,
and Bush's Environmental Protection Agency has permitted mountaintop removal
for coal mining, is trying to lift a Reagan-era regulation that banned
mining within 100 feet of a stream and increased the amount of public land
available for mining company waste dumping.
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- In addition, the administration-backed Medicare bill
was a boon to the pharmaceutical and managed care industries, the insurance
industry benefited by government agreeing to cover 80 percent of terrorism
damages, and media conglomerates have gained from policies encouraging
mega-mergers.
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- http://www.citizen.org/pressroom/release.cfm?ID=1656
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