(Newser)
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Goldman Sachs has given Washington plenty of reasons to help it out—43 million reasons, to be precise. Goldman bankers have been the nation’s biggest campaign contributors this year, and have poured more than $43 million into lobbying and campaign war chests since 1989, ABC News reports. “They are almost in a class by themselves,” one analyst said.
Goldman employees are the top contributors to 55 separate members of Congress, lead Barack Obama’s donor list and rank fourth for John McCain; bailout architect Henry Paulson is a former company CEO. A spokesman says Goldman employees are merely exercising their First Amendment rights, and that Paulson’s plan is vital for the whole economy: “It is not about Goldman Sachs.”
