President Donald Trump issued a memorandum on Thursday ordering federal agencies to devise a plan to restore the roughly 20,000 pensions of former Delphi workers who had their pensions slashed in the Obama-Biden administration’s bailout of General Motors (GM).
In 2009, as part of the Obama-Biden administration’s taxpayer-funded bailout of General Motors (GM), the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) terminated the pension plans of about 20,0000 non-unionized Delphi workers. In some cases, workers had their pensions gutted by as much as 75 percent.
A federal report in 2013 detailed that the Delphi workers would likely have their pensions cut by an estimated $440 million. Meanwhile, GM topped off unionized Delphi workers’ pensions at a cost of about $1 billion.
After 11 years with no federal action on the issue, Trump is ordering the trade adviser Peter Navarro, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, and Labor Secretary Eugene Scalia to devise a plan on how to restore the Delphi workers’ slashed pensions over the next 90 days.
Navarro said in a press call that the pensions “might well be able to be done through executive action” without the need to involve Congress.
“This is a very good day for blue-collar America,” Navarro said. “… the signal today is we have a strong commitment to reversing what we judge to be one of the worst losses to blue-collar America … and it happened on [former Vice President] Joe Biden and [former President] Barack Obama’s watch.”
The memorandum reads:
The Secretary of the Treasury, the Secretary of Commerce, and the Secretary of Labor, in consultation with the Assistant to the President for Trade and Manufacturing Policy, shall review the Delphi matter described in subsection 1(a) of this memorandum and inform the President within 90 days of the date of this memorandum of any appropriate action that may be taken , consistent with applicable law, to address affected Delphi retirees’ lost pension benefits, and bring additional transparency to the decision to terminate the plan, consistent with appropriate protections for privileged and confidential material. This review shall include an evaluation of the feasibility of enacting legislation and whether the plan may be restored to its pre-termination status under section 1347 of title 29, United States Code. [Emphasis added]
Rep. Mike Turner (R-OH), who has advocated for the Delphi workers for more than a decade, praised Trump’s order.
“Today, President Trump is taking action to finally help these hard-working people who were robbed by the Obama-Biden administration,” Turner said in a statement. “For 11 long years, I have been at the forefront of helping the Delphi Salaried Retirees fight to retain their pensions, which they earned through years of faithful service. President Trump is proving yet again that he supports American workers.”
Another portion of the memorandum gives Navarro, Mnuchin, Ross, and Scalia 180 days to review insolvency issues in regards to PBGC pension plans.
“Actions may include proposing legislation that appropriately balances the interests of all those covered by the pension system — from retirees, workers, employers, and unions, to plans and taxpayers — to address the insolvency of such plans and to maintain the future solvency of the PBGC’s Single-Employer and Multi-Employer Programs,” the memorandum reads.
In 2012, federal documents unveiled how the Obama-Biden administration’s Treasury Department worked to gut the pensions of the Delphi workers. In other emails, PBGC officials indicated they had the green light from the Obama-Biden administration to slash the pensions.
Those involved with the pension-slashing scheme, such as Tim Geithner, Steven Rattner, and Ron Bloom, are currently pouring thousands of dollars into Democrat presidential candidate Joe Biden’s campaign.
Navarro said the “root evil” of the Obama-Biden administration’s slashing of the Delphi workers’ pensions “was a globalist trade policy that shipped jobs to China and Mexico.”
“As we face these insolvency issues, part of the problem is that we offshore our production and no longer have the ability, in terms of our manufacturing base, to sustain our retirees and it’s a key part of the Trump mission to bring those jobs back,” Navarro said.
Former Delphi workers who spoke to Breitbart News recently detailed how the pension-slashing scheme uprooted their livelihoods. One retiree said she lost her home and her retirement plans to move to the Florida coast have been squashed.
Another retiree said his wife died in the process as he was forced to find work in order to pay for her medical bills. He had assumed that after 30 years at Delphi, he and his wife would have a good healthcare plan in their retirement. That ended when his pension was cut by about 30 percent.
Delphi, which has since split into Aptiv and Delphi Technologies, announced in 2006 that it would shutter 21 of its 29 plants in the United States — offshoring some 20,000 U.S. jobs to Mexico, China, and other foreign countries.
At the time, Delphi employed nearly 50,000 Americans, who earned about $30 an hour on the assembly line. Now, workers in Mexico for the company earn about $1 an hour.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter at @JxhnBinder .
Obama Officials Who Helped Slash Pensions for Delphi Workers
Shower Joe Biden with Campaign Cash
Alex Wong/Getty Images
19
Oct 2020 1,387
5:42
Former Obama administration officials, linked to the slashing of
pensions for 20,000 Delphi workers, are showering Democrat presidential
candidate Joe Biden with campaign cash to oust President Trump from office.
In 2009, as part of the Obama-Biden administration’s
taxpayer-funded bailout of General Motors (GM), the Pension Benefit Guaranty
Corporation (PBGC) terminated the pension plans of about 20,0000 non-unionized
Delphi workers. In some cases, workers had their pensions gutted by as much as
75 percent.
A federal report in 2013 detailed that the Delphi workers would likely have their pensions
cut by an estimated $440 million. Meanwhile, GM topped
off unionized Delphi workers’ pensions at a
cost of about $1 billion.
In 2012, federal documents unveiled how the Obama-Biden
administration’s Treasury Department worked to gut the pensions of the Delphi workers. In other
emails, PBGC officials indicated they had the green light from the Obama-Biden
administration to slash the pensions.
Trump officials have said the president is working on an
executive plan to restore the Delphi pension after more than a decade of no help
from the Obama administration.
A number of Obama officials directly involved with the auto
bailout deal that slashed the pensions are now banking on a Biden victory on
November 3 — pouring hundreds of thousands of dollars into the former vice
president’s campaign with Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA).
Among those officials involved in the deal were former Treasury
Secretary Tim Geithner, who reportedly contributed $150,000 to the Biden Action Fund in August. As previously
noted, emails in 2012 detailed how Geithner’s agency at the time “was the
driving force behind terminating the pensions of 20,000 salaried retirees at
the Delphi auto parts manufacturing company.”
Geithner was said to have delegated out responsibility for the
Delphi pensions to a select team of Obama officials, though insiders have said
he was pushed to help the workers but did not lift a finger.
Likewise, Obama official Steven Rattner has contributed a total
of $5,600 to Biden’s campaign last year and this year. Rattner was at the
center of the Delphi pensions slashing scheme, as noted in the 2013 federal
report previously mentioned:
According to Auto Team leader Rattner, pensions were another
area where the Auto Team “encouraged” GM to cut costs . GM had a pay-as-you-go pension plan for salaried
employees that was not funded and GM salaried employees and retirees wanted
their full pensions, but Mr. Rattner told SIGTARP that the Auto Team
wanted cuts to those benefits . [Emphasis added]
…
Auto Team leader Rattner told SIGTARP that GM came to the Auto
Team because “GM wanted to do something for the [Delphi] salaried retirees.”
Mr. Rattner discussed it with then-GM CEO Henderson. Although Mr. Rattner could
not remember the specifics of the conversation, he told SIGTARP that he thought
there was nothing defensible from a commercial standpoint that could be done
for the Delphi salaried retirees. Mr. Rattner told SIGTARP, “We
didn’t think there was anything defensible. We felt bad, but we didn’t
think it was justifiable.” [Emphasis added]
Ron Bloom, another Obama official, has given $2,800 to Biden’s
campaign. Bloom is named in the 2013 federal report regarding the Delphi
pension slashing scheme, which notes his direct involvement:
Although Delphi salaried retirees had asked Auto Team official
Bloom to consider preserving the pensions out of fairness, Auto Team
official Bloom told SIGTARP that GM “did not provide a top-up to the
salaried guys because I think [GM] concluded there was not a commercially
reasonable reason to do it.” Mr. Bloom added that GM’s automotive
parts suppliers “received a hundred cents on the dollar,” the UAW’s retirees
received a number “less than a hundred, but more than the bondholders,” and
some got less than the bondholders. Mr. Bloom told SIGTARP that they
could not make everyone whole and “That’s not to say that people
didn’t lose a lot or [were] hurt or were treated in a way that – sort of in a
human way you would say that’s unfair. I don’t think that anybody
thinks bankruptcy is fair. It is what it is, though.” [Emphasis added]
Matthew Feldman, who had potentially more involvement in the
Delphi pension slashing scheme than any other Obama official aside from
Rattner, has not made contributions to Biden. Members of Feldman’s firm,
Willkie Farr & Gallagher, where he is co-chairman, have donated tens of
thousands to Biden.
It is unclear how many Obama officials who are linked to the
Delphi pension slashing scheme are eyeing jobs in a Biden White House should he
win on November 3. Biden is considering a number of former Obama officials for top-level jobs,
many under the mantle of “diversity.”
Delphi, which has since split into Aptiv and Delphi
Technologies, announced in 2006 that it would shutter 21 of its 29 plants in the United States — offshoring
some 20,000 U.S. jobs to Mexico, China, and other foreign countries.
At the time, Delphi employed nearly 50,000 Americans, who earned about $30 an hour on the assembly line. Now, workers
in Mexico for the company earn about $1 an hour.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on
Twitter at @JxhnBinder .
Joe Biden Sought ‘Grand
Bargain’ to Reduce Deficit Through Cuts to Social Security
J. Scott
Applewhite/AP Photo
20 Oct 2020 7,959
7:57
Joe
Biden, the Democratic presidential nominee, worked to forge a “grand bargain”
with congressional Republicans on deficit reduction during the Obama years. As
part of the effort, the former vice president openly advocated for putting
entitlement programs, including Social Security, on the negotiating table.
Shortly after taking office in 2009,
President Barack Obama and his administration were struck with a complex
problem. The economy, which was still in the midst of the Great Recession, was
struggling to rebound, with job losses, bankruptcies, and home foreclosures
running rampant. At the same, the deficit was at an all-time, hitting 8.9
percent of Gross Domestic Product, because of the Bush-era tax cuts and
recession required stimulus spending.
While on the surface the issues
seemed to be separate, in reality, they were intertwined. A mounting deficit,
without restrictions in the country’s money supply, could cause widespread
inflation, much like it did in the late-1960s and early-1970s. Even if
inflation were avoided, a continuing deficit could still hamper long-term
economic growth and prevent foreign investment.
Although the
considerations given to the deficit were mostly practical by Obama’s inner
circle, at least some of the calculations must have also been political. As
early as April 2009, only four months into Obama’s Oval Office tenure, the
seeds of the Tea Party movement were already beginning to sow. For Obama to
achieve many of the promises made on the 2008 campaign trail, it was vital for
Democrats to keep control of Congress in the upcoming midterms. That outcome,
however, could be endangered if Republicans aligned with the Tea Party
succeeded in painting the president’s fiscal policies as “ reckless .”
Given such concerns, Obama began
signaling his desire to tackle the deficit in early 2010. In February of the
year, Obama created via executive order a National Commission on Fiscal
Responsibility and Reform. The commission, which would be bipartisan, would
consist of 18 members, with 12 appointed by Congress and six by the president.
Its goal would be devising a long-term proposal for lowering the deficit and
achieving a balanced budget by at least 2015.
To chair the commission, Obama
tapped former Senator Alan Simpson (R-WY) and Erskine Bowles, a one-time chief
of staff to ex-President Bill Clinton. The commission, simply known as
Simpson-Bowles, was set to release its recommendations by December 2010 in
hopes that the incoming Congress would act on them the following year.
Even though
Biden was not a member of the commission, the vice president took an interest
in its work because it overlapped with his official role in helping run the
administration’s economic recovery efforts. Biden, who had long favored freezing all federal spending,
including social security, to rein in the deficit, worked with not only Simpson
and Bowles on crafting a proposal, but also the commission’s executive
director, Bruce Reed. As a former Clinton administration official in the
early-1990s, Reed had partnered with then-Senator Biden on authoring the 1994
crime bill.
The eventual proposal that
Simpson-Bowles authored sought to reduce the deficit by more than four trillion
dollars. It would have stabilized the growth of the federal debt by 2014, while
reducing it by more than 60 percent by 2023. Although the goals looked good,
the cost would have fallen heavily on individuals who rely on federal spending
and entitlement programs, like Social Security.
Simpson-Bowles proposed to cut
Social Security benefits for those in the top half of the income tax bracket,
while raising the retirement age to 69. The plan also would have reduced the
cost of living adjustments that are made to benefits as inflation rises.
The proposal, when it was released
in December 2010, was derided by both Republicans and Democrats. Republicans,
who had just won control of the United States House of Representatives, were
emboldened to believe that voters, backed by Tea Party sympathy, would want
larger cuts to achieve a balanced budget sooner. Democrats, on the other hand,
especially those that self-identified as progressives, viewed the cuts to
programs such as Social Security as draconian.
Although the Simpson-Bowles proposal
was never introduced in Congress, its ideas for reducing the deficit quickly
took hold among Obama administration officials, specifically Biden. Shortly
after the commission wound down, the vice president announced that Reed would
become his chief of staff, seeming to signal that deficit reduction would be
Biden’s new priority.
Starting in
early-2011, Biden and Reed began holding talks with top congressional leaders,
including then-House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, on how to how to achieve a
“grand bargain” on the deficit. Those talks, profiled in Bob Woodward’s
book The Price of Politics , seem to
indicate that Biden was eager to strike a deal, even offering to put Social
Security and Medicare on the “table.”
By the
summer of 2011, Biden had roped more members of Congress into the talks, with
the group now expanded to six Democrats and six Republicans. As Woodward noted , Biden was close to hammering out a deal that
would have cut federal spending by $2 trillion, including programs like Social
Security, Medicare, and Food Stamps. When Republicans fretted over proposed tax
increases, especially allowing the Bush tax cuts to expire, Biden suggested a
compromise by raising the retirement age for Social Security and also creating a
mechanism to means-test the program.
As part of the compromise, Biden
also pitched Republicans on a relatively obscure change to the cost of living
formula in hopes of sealing a deal. Biden, in particular, sought to amend the
formula that determined the cost of living adjustments for programs like Social
Security. At the time, Biden suggested that such programs in the future be tied
to the United States Chained Consumer Price Index (Chained CPI) rather than the
current United States Consumer Price Index.
Chained CPI is predicated on the
notion that when the cost of living increases because of changes in the prices
of goods, consumers will adjust their purchasing patterns to make up for the
rise. The theory suggests that even though cost of living might increase on
paper, the impact is negligible on consumers.
Had Biden succeeded in tying Social
Security and other entitlements to Chained CPI, it would have cut the expected
growth in program benefits that recipients had become accustomed to over time.
Attaching Social Security to Chained CPI has long been opposed by progressives
and advocacy groups like the AARP on the grounds that seniors are more impacted
by inflation since a significant portion of their incomes go to medical costs,
which are always rising at rates higher than the rest of the economy.
Even though Biden attempted to make
Chained CPI central to the deficit negotiation, the talks ultimately fell apart
when congressional Republicans were unable to sell any proposed revenue
increases to their members.
Despite the
failure, Biden, with Obama’s backing continued trying to forge a “grand
bargain” on deficit reduction in 2012 and 2013. Each time the talks included tying Chained CPI to
Social Security and other entitlements programs.
The former
vice president’s position on deficit reduction comes back into the spotlight as
Biden has promised to not only protect, but also expand Social Security if elected in
November.
Biden’s campaign did not return
requests for comment on this story.
JOE BIDEN'S DEMOCRAT PARTY
IS FOR BOTTOMLESS SOCIALISM, WELFARE, SUBSIDIES AND BAILOUTS FOR WALL
STREET.
THE LOOTING OF AMERICA:
BARACK OBAMA AND HIS CRONY BANKSTERS set
themselves on America’s pensions next!
The new aristocrats,
like the lords of old, are not bound by the laws that apply to the lower
orders. Voluminous reports have been issued by Congress and government panels
documenting systematic fraud and law breaking carried out by the biggest banks
both before and after the Wall Street crash of 2008.
Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan
Chase, Bank of America and every other major US bank have been implicated in a
web of scandals, including the sale of toxic mortgage securities on false
pretenses, the rigging of international interest rates and global foreign
exchange markets, the laundering of Mexican drug money, accounting fraud and
lying to bank regulators, illegally foreclosing on the homes of delinquent
borrowers, credit card fraud, illegal debt-collection practices, rigging of
energy markets, and complicity in the Bernie Madoff Ponzi scheme.
NO
PRESIDENT IN HISTORY SUCKED IN MORE BRIBES FROM CRIMINAL BANKSTERS THAN BARACK
OBAMA!
This was not
because of difficulties in securing indictments or convictions. On the
contrary, Attorney General Eric Holder told a Senate committee in March of 2013
that the Obama administration chose not to prosecute the big banks or their
CEOs because to do so might “have a negative impact on the national economy.”
http://mexicanoccupation.blogspot.com/2016/10/the-bankster-owned-president-citigroup.html
This is a further shift
leftward by Wall Street from the last election cycle, when between 50 percent
and 52 percent of the contributions through mid-year 2017 from J.P. Morgan,
Morgan Stanley, and Bank of America went to Republicans. Those banks sent
between 37 percent and 45 percent of the contributions to Democrats.
Joe Biden Rakes in More than $50M from Wall Street,
Including from Soros
David Dee Delgado/Getty Images
16
Oct 2020 8
3:01
Democrat
presidential candidate Joe Biden is raking in tens of millions of dollars from
Wall Street, weeks away from the November 3 election against President Trump.
In the last few months,
Biden’s campaign and his fundraising committees have “benefited from big money
contributions from finance leaders on Wall Street and across the country,”
according to a new report by CNBC.
Wall Street donors to date
have spent more than $50 million to help get Biden elected, as they view his
candidacy as a return to the economic status quo, which has often spelled
economic decline for Main Street.
CNBC reports:
The joint committees , which raise money for the
Biden campaign, the Democratic National Committee and state parties, are
being fueled, at least in part, by Wall Street executives . Those
committees accept six-figure contributions. [Emphasis added]
…
People in the financial
industry have largely favored Biden, spending more than $50 million to back his
candidacy ,
according to the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics, compared with more
than $10 million for Trump. [Emphasis added]
Some of those Wall Street
donors to Biden include President Obama’s former Treasury Department secretary
Tim Geithner, who contributed $150,000 to the Biden Action Fund in August.
Geithner, while in the Obama administration, coordinated to slash pensions for
roughly 20,000 Delphi workers in the midst of
the auto bailout for General Motors (GM).
Wall Street executives Antonio Gracias and Jonathan Shulkin each
delivered $300,000 to Biden’s campaign in August, while venture capitalist John
Doerr donated more than $355,000 to the Biden Action Fund in the last three
months.
Likewise, Wall Street investor Jonathan Soros, the son of
billionaire left-wing mega-donor George Soros, gave a little less than $145,000
to Biden in the third quarter, while Wall Street venture capitalists and
investors John Doerr, Stephen Mandel, and Pete Muller gave Biden nearly $1.5
million.
In the third quarter, alone, the Biden Action Fund got more than
$4 million from Wall Street donors, with huge donations from executives at the
Blackstone Group, JPMorgan Chase, The Carlyle Group, and Kohlberg Kravis &
Roberts.
Wall Street and nearly all of the nation’s biggest
banks have lined up to support Biden and
his running mate, Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA), against Trump’s economic
nationalist agenda. Goldman Sachs and Moody’s Analytics each released reports
to investors indicating their backing of a “blue wave” on election day as the
biggest net gain for the financial industry.
John Binder is a
reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter at @JxhnBinder .
Likewise, Wall Street
is behind Biden’s plan to hugely expand legal immigration levels, beyond
already historical highs at 1.2 million green cards and 1.4 million visa
workers a year.
Biden has elated Wall Street so much that for the
first time in a decade, more financial executives are donating to Democrat
candidates than Republicans, the latest Center for Responsive Politics
analysis reveals .
CNN: ‘All
the Big Banks’ on Wall Street Backing Joe Biden Against Trump
SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images
JOHN BINDER
28 Sep
2020 3,632
3:20
Democrat presidential candidate Joe Biden is raking in Wall
Street cash from all the big banks at five times the rate of President Trump, a
CNN report admits.
An analysis by CNN found that “all the
big banks are backing Biden” against Trump, with the former vice president
taking a larger margin of Wall Street donations than even failed Democrat
presidential candidate Hillary Clinton did in 2016.
CNN reports :
The securities and
investment industry donated just $10.5 million to Trump’s presidential campaign
and outside groups aligned with it, according to a new tally by
OpenSecrets. It has sent nearly five times as much cash, $51.1
million, to Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden . [Emphasis
added]
That means Trump
is losing the fundraising race among Wall Streeters by a slightly greater
magnitude than in 2016 .
During that cycle, former New York Senator Hillary Clinton and groups aligned
with her raised $88 million from the securities and investment industry, while
Trump took in just $20.8 million. [Emphasis added]
…
But a CNN Business
analysis of OpenSecrets research shows that Biden is beating Trump
in fundraising from all of America’s big banks — in some cases by
wide margins. [Emphasis added]
At the big banks — which
saw little-to-no consequences for their role in the 2008
financial crisis — Biden is sweeping up donations from employees by huge
margins. At Goldman Sachs, for example, Biden has raised more than $156,000,
while Trump has taken less than $12,000.
JPMorgan Chase employees have given
three times as much campaign cash to Biden as Trump. Biden has taken nearly
$380,000. At Morgan Stanley, Biden has taken more than twice as much as Trump,
taking nearly $258,000 from the bank’s employees compared to Trump’s $96,010.
Despite pitching himself
as a defender of blue-collar Americans, Biden has not only been widely backed by Wall Street but also by wealthy
residents on Park Avenue.
Biden’s campaign has
raised over $1 million from donors living on Park Avenue, according to Federal
Election Commission (FEC) filings, as Breitbart News reported . This is more than eight times the
$127,000 raised by the Trump campaign from the same area.
This month, Biden touted Wall Street’s support for his plan
to abolish America’s suburbs by seizing control of local zoning laws to
construct housing developments and multi-family buildings in
neighborhoods. Likewise, Wall Street is behind Biden’s plan to hugely expand legal immigration levels, beyond
already historical highs at 1.2 million green cards and 1.4 million visa
workers a year.
Biden has elated Wall Street so much that for the
first time in a decade, more financial executives are donating to Democrat
candidates than Republicans, the latest Center for Responsive Politics
analysis reveals .
John Binder is a
reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter at @JxhnBinder .
Likewise,
Wall Street is behind Biden’s
plan to hugely expand legal
immigration levels, beyond already historical highs at 1.2 million green cards
and 1.4 million visa workers a year.
Biden has elated Wall
Street so much that for the first time in a decade, more financial executives
are donating to Democrat candidates than Republicans, the latest Center for
Responsive Politics analysis reveals .
Joe
Biden’s Campaign Is
Awash
in Wall Street Cash
AP Photo/Patrick Semansky
JOHN CARNEY
2 Jun 2020 80
4:01
Joe Biden
has adopted the anti-Wall Street rhetoric of some of his former rivals for the
Democrat nomination, but that has not stopped him from collecting an enormous
war chest of campaign cash from the financial sector.
Biden on Tuesday said that America
“wasn’t built by Wall Street bankers and CEOs, it was built by the great
American middle class.”
Eamon Javers
✔ @EamonJavers
· 6h
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Eamon Javers
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63
7:22 AM - Jun 2, 2020
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Securities industry employees, a
close proxy for Wall Street, have donated $29,703,244 to Biden’s campaign
or to political committees supporting his campaign for the
presidency, according to the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics.
The sector is the second-largest source of campaign contributions to Biden’s
campaign, coming only after Democrat Party and left-wing organizations.
Donald Trump, by contrast, has only
received around $6,320,861.
Biden has
also received far more campaign cash from employees of J.P.Morgan Chase , Bank of America , Morgan Stanley , and Goldman Sachs than
his Republican rival, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. For
example, Biden has taken more than 6 times as much money from J.P. Morgan Chase
employees than Trump.
Employees at those four firms have
donated a total of $508,259 to Biden’s campaign, according to data from the
Center for Responsive Politics. Morgan Stanley was the biggest contributor to
Biden of the group, with donations totaling $171,274.
Trump has received just $27,981
dollars from Morgan Stanley employees. J.P. Morgan employees have contributed
$23,942. Bank of America employees given $40,448. Goldman’s contributions add
up to a grand total of $4,211, according to data from the Center for Responsive
Politics. A total of $96,582, less than one-fifth of Biden’s take.
Political contributions from
Citigroup were unavailable at the time of publication.
The campaign cash from the big Wall
Street banks have poured into Democrat coffers in the 2020 election cycle.
Slightly more than 58 percent of Goldman’s contributions to Congressional
candidates have gone to Democrats. More than 62 percent of Morgan Stanley’s
contributions went to Democrats. Bank of America was nearly even, with 49.9
percent going to Republicans and 49.6 percent going to Republicans. J.P. Morgan
favored Democrats by nearly 60 percent to 30 percent, with 10 percent going to
independent candidates.
This is not a function of just
giving to the majority party. Goldman’s contributions favor Democrats in the
House and Republicans in the Senate, while Morgan Stanley’s and J.P. Morgan’s
favor Democrats in both. Bank of America contributors favor Republican
candidates for the House and Democrats in the Senate.
When measured by contributions to
all federal candidates, all four skew Democrat. J.P. Morgan’s contributions are
the most tilted, with 73.4 percent going to Democrat candidates, and Bank of
America’s the least, with 58.5 percent going to Democrats. Morgan Stanley tilts
67.9 percent Democrat. Goldman lean is 61.28 Democrat.
This is a further shift leftward by
Wall Street from the last election cycle, when between 50 percent and 52
percent of the contributions through mid-year 2017 from J.P. Morgan, Morgan
Stanley, and Bank of America went to Republicans. Those banks sent between 37
percent and 45 percent of the contributions to Democrats.