House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) acknowledged the corruptive influence of money in politics, when asked about the recent success of Sen. Bernie Sanders’ (I-Vt.) presidential campaign, but framed it as a problem that exists only in Republican circles.
In a briefing with reporters Thursday, Pelosi said Sanders’ focus on campaign finance reform has “been a big part of [the] strength” that propelled him to a historic victory in Hew Hampshire earlier this week. But she went on to say that the problem of donor influence in the post-Citizens United era is one that only casts the Republican Party establishment into disrepute.
“In the public mind and probably in some reality, you cannot separate the role of money from the priority of certain issues in this Republican congress,” Pelosi said, noting the lack of action on climate change legislation, and GOP efforts to repeal Obamacare and protect corporate tax breaks.
“Is that affected by the role of money in politics, the public suspects that it is, and the skepticism is unhealthy for our democracy,” the Minority Leader then said.
In the Democratic presidential race, the source of the two leading candidates’ campaign contributions has become a major sticking point. Sen. Sanders has criticized his rival, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, for using a Super PAC to solicit donations from bankers and other powerful industries.
“I don’t know any progressive who has a Super PAC and takes $15 million from Wall Street,” Sanders said of Clinton during a town hall meeting in New Hampshire last week.
Many of Clinton’s top donors throughout her political career have hailed from the financial industry. She has collected millions in contributions from banking giants like Citigroup, Goldman Sacks, and JP Morgan Chase, according to data from the Center for Responsive Politics.
Clinton countered the criticism in a heated exchange during a debate last week.
“You will not find that I ever changed a view or a vote because of any donation that I ever received,” Clinton told Sanders. “So I think it’s time to end the very artful smear that you and your campaign have been carrying out in recent weeks, and lets talk about the issues.”
Although Sanders didn’t mention it, there is one vote, in particular, that Clinton allegedly “changed” due to industry concerns.
In a 2003 book, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) accused Clinton of flip-flopping on a bankruptcy bill that was pushed by the financial industry. Warren, then a Harvard Law professor, recalled personally advising Clinton on a similar bankruptcy overhaul bill in the late 1990’s, and that as First Lady, Clinton lobbied to have it vetoed. But after being elected to the Senate in 2002–and after accepting $140,000 from the banking sector in her campaign–Clinton changed course and voted in favor of the measure. It passed 83-15.
“Big banks were now part of Senator Clinton’s constituency. She wanted their support, and they wanted hers—including a vote in favor of ‘that awful bill,” Warren wrote in her book.
In her comments Thursday, Leader Pelosi also seemed to forget how influential Democrats were in carrying recent legislation that repealed Dodd-Frank prohibitions on taxpayer guarantees for Wall Street.
At the end of 2014, fifty-six House Democrats joined Republican colleagues in voting for the “Cromnibus” spending bill–legislation that included a deregulatory policy rider. That provision nullified a rule that would have prevented banks from using customers’ federally-backed savings to engage in derivatives trades. The so-called “swaps push-out rule” had been set to take effect in 2015. Late last year, Sen. Warren and House Oversight Committee ranking member Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) estimated that it kept $10 trillion worth of financial transactions tied up with taxpayer guarantees.
Although the provision was included in wide-ranging omnibus legislation, Sen. Warren, at the time, whipped House Democrats to vote against the entire package on account of the policy rider.
On the other side of the equation, JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon personally phoned lawmakers on Capitol Hill, urging them to pass the Dodd-Frank revisions, which had initially been drafted by Citigroup lobbyists.
Nineteen of the 56 Democrats who supported the bill were among the top twenty beneficiaries of JP Morgan Chase campaign donations to House Democrats in the previous campaign cycle. Another 16 Dems who voted “yea” were among the top 20 recipients of similar campaign donations by Citigroup. The Cromnibus could have been killed by House Democrats if just seven of them had changed their vote.
Pelosi, who has received a relatively small amount of money from Wall Street throughout her career, voted against the bill.
