Speaking of taking the country back GOP groups plan record $1 billion blitz Republican super PACs and other outside groups shaped by a loose network of prominent conservatives – including Karl Rove, the Koch brothers and Tom Donohue of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce – plan to spend roughly $1 billion on November’s elections for the White House and control of Congress, according to officials familiar with the groups’ internal operations. That total includes previously undisclosed plans for newly aggressive spending by the Koch brothers, who are steering funding to build sophisticated, county-by-county operations in key states. POLITICO has learned that Koch-related organizations plan to spend about $400 million ahead of the 2012 elections - twice what they had been expected to commit. Just the spending linked to the Koch network is more than the $370 million that John McCain raised for his entire presidential campaign four years ago. And the $1 billion total surpasses the $750 million that Barack Obama, one of the most prolific fundraisers ever, collected for his 2008 campaign. Restore Our Future, the super PAC supporting Mitt Romney, proved its potency by spending nearly $50 million in the primaries. Now able to entice big donors with a neck-and-neck general election, the group is likely to meet its new goal of spending $100 million more. And American Crossroads and the affiliated Crossroads GPS, the groups that Rove and Ed Gillespie helped conceive and raise cash for, are expected to ante up $300 million, giving the two-year-old organization one of the election’s loudest voices. “The intensity on the right is white-hot,” said Steven Law, president of American Crossroads and Crossroads GPS. “We just can’t leave anything in the locker room. And there is a greater willingness to cooperate and share information among outside groups on the center-right.” In targeted states, the groups’ activities will include TV, radio and digital advertising; voter-turnout work; mail and phone appeals; and absentee- and early-ballot drives. The $1 billion in outside money is in addition to the traditional party apparatus – the Romney campaign and the Republican National Committee – which together intend to raise at least $800 million. The Republican financial plans are unlike anything seen before in American politics. If the GOP groups hit their targets, they likely could outspend their liberal adversaries by at least two-to-one, according to officials involved in the budgeting for outside groups on the right and left.
The big difference is that for Obama to amass a billion dollars, he has to get millions of donors. For outside groups (where Dem or GOP), it takes 1 rich person. If you think 1 person having that much influence is a good thing, I don't know what to say. Bill Gates could basically just decide who he wants to be President and spend $5 billion to make it happen. Do you think that's a healthy structure for a country?
Come now, Major, you don't really believe what you wrote, do you? If so, that means you have to ignore Obama's celebrity donation dinners that cost $40,000 a plate (does George Clooney ring a bell?).
Donations from all sources are fundamentally alike in both parties. For every Koch there is a Soros. For every SEIU there is a Citizens United. Let's face it, the 60% is mostly union donations by union management. The actual members have little to no say over how their union dues are spent. They can't individually say "not my money" but they are counted as individual donors.
Please prove this. I can document that this is not the case. Once again you have created some tea party universe of facts that you have accepted as truth. It is simply not the case
Statistics are too malleable. Look at the way Obama abused them to claim he was the lowest spending (percentage wise) President in 60 years. When you document them with a credible source, I will spend some time refuting them.
Oh good lord Once again, we see the facts have a liberal bias. So lets get back to the premise of the thread. Do you believe citizens united is good for the country?
You are making a dishonest argument. Obama only recently opened up to Super PAC's because he had no choice - he's going to get blasted by the GOP in spending. But most of his money comes from small donations. A lot of internet advertising - I know because I did some of the work on their campaigns to raise money. They really do focus on small donors. Personally I think Obama made a big mistake not going for big money sooner. He's going to get shallacked. You should be happy. With Citizens united, your favored party will be the dominant one despite a country increasing moving away from the right.
Any "donation" that isn't made by an individual of his own free will (and subjected to strict individual spending limits) is basically another giant turd on the face of democracy. There should be NO "donations" at all. All campaigns should be publicly-funded with strict spending limits. Really, the 24-hour news media is so desperate for a constant stream of political bull**** that I'm sure they'd be more than happy to donate TV time to the major parties. Otherwise, anyone who has more money than you do also has a bigger vote than you do.
All media are salivating over the billions in advertising from both sides, and both sides are raising money from large and small donors at roughly the same clip. In the end, the poor economy and disastrous national debt will speak the loudest.
A poor economy and disastrous national debt people credit to Bush. Don't try to equalize things. You can't. Romney may win. But you really think he's going to stabilize the debt? No, it will accelerate even more. If he cuts taxes it will increase the debt. If he cuts spending it will tank the economy. You think he will do either?
I think he will do both without the dire consequences you forecast. We desperately need actual tax reform -- not tax tweaking -- as in a graduated flat tax with no exclusions and tighter controls on non-productive spending (see scandals such as with the GSA, judges vacationing in Hawaii under the guise of a conference, government lawmen whooping it up with prostitutes, Congressional junkets, bridges to nowhere, high speed rail from nowhere to Las Vegas, etc.).