Presidential Candidates At the Bailout Trough

The bloated rhetoric of the two presidential candidates is only exceeded by the nonsense they have both expressed about the financial crisis. Thanks to research by the Center for Responsive Politics the figures they collected speak volumes about how likely the bailout will work. We should know who funds their campaigns. The financial services industries have funded both candidates.

Here is the tally at the trough:

McCain received $19.6 million and Obama garnished $22.5 million.

Two of the biggest financial groups in Washington, the Financial Services Roundtable and the Mortgage Bankers Association, have been holding meetings with McCain and Obama’s economic advisers. They are working to shift their bad debt to taxpayers. The Roundtable has met in private, closed-door sessions with Obama economic advisers Ian Soloman and McCain adviser Ike Brannon. Those lurking around Obama—-economists such as Paul Volcker, Robert Rubin, Lawrence Summers, and Laura Tyson-—are as guilty of dismantling of government regulation as those advising McCain.

I say a pox on both their houses.