Representitice Himes and the power of money in congress

Regardless of what position someone is running for they need all the help they can get. For those that think they can simply start a campaign with out a financial strategy consider this. There are a lot of expenditures when it comes to a campaign including cost of transporting yourself and your staff, paying your staff and financing all they ways your word gets out to the public are a few of the many expenses and unless your Donald Trump there's no way you can pay for all of them. That's why campaign sponsors are so crucial to candidates because now, rather than worry about their finances, they can focus on convincing citizens to vote for them. These sponsors come from all sorts of industries including agriculture, chemical, banking etc. But while some simply show their support for the candidate other industries funds do the same but come with a catch. But until then here are some of the contributes to my representative.

I have stated before that I live in the 4th district of Connecticut who is represented by democrat Jim Hines who has held that office since 2009. He serves of the Committee of Financial Services, primarily in the subcommittees of Capital Markets and housing/insurance, and the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. Here are some of his biggest beneficiaries: Of the $390,300 in donations from Himes' top twenty industries for the 2016 elections 73% of that was through pacts and 68% came from his top 5 industry contributes which were Insurance, securities/investments, retired, accountants and commercial banks. Looking at the list of individual companies the top five are listed at Credit Suisse, The Hartford, Pricewatterhouse Coopers, and tied for fit are the American Institute of CPA's, the Prudential Group and Home Depot. From the looks of it Jim Himes' sponsors it makes sense that some of his biggest supporters would be in banking and securities because he was at one point vice president of Goldman Sachs so he has some experience within these industries. 

The way I look at campaign donations there are two types of donations with very different objectives. There are those that simply show support and those that look to take advantage of candidates, With Himes, from what I observed, his biggest contributes are the types of companies with no further agenda than helping out a local/national politician. However there are plenty of industries out there with tricks up their sleeves. Two in particular that were looked at in the Pricless documentary were the oil and gas companies and chemical pesticides companies. It is well documented that oil is maybe the biggest industry in the United States. We are one of the biggest producers, suppliers and consumers of oil in the world. But with all the money made there is the major consequence in environmental danger. It is proven that the emissions of fossil fuels has created green house gases and have destroyed ecosystems thanks to the continuous drilling for oil. 

For the chemical companies the documentary focused on pesticides and other chemicals farmers use to protect their crops. We are a growing nation and our produce needs to keep up with the ever growing constant demand so farmers can't afford to lose any percentage of their crops due to pests. So to fight this farmers spray their crops with certain chemicals to protect not only their crops but their business as well. However these chemicals make the foods we eat seemingly unsafe to eat. The documentary showed that the number of different chemicals that are in our produce is mind boggling. It also ruins the land around us. As these chemicals seep into the ground they manage their way into the underground water which then goes into rivers, the oceans and even our drinking water creating dead zones in the oceans and creating physical ailments for those that drank the contaminated water. 

With such great risks Congress should respond in some way either coming up with an alternative fuel source or limit the drilling of oil but they don't and why is that? It's because many members of congress and their campaign funds are sponsored by oil companies. Remember when I said that some funds come with a catch this is what I mean in that in order to stay in office politicians need all the financial support they can get and oil companies are a big investor in political campaigns. However oil companies want something in return from these politicians and that is their full support in what they do and defend their practices and these companies have the leverage because if politicians they support go on the offensive against them they can easily cut all funding from that politicians campaign. 

So in the end, while Jim Himes' contributers don't show signs of swaying his opinions, Pricless showed that politics and business don't mix due to operate ideologies at work. I feel the only way we can get anything done in congress is if future candidates simply refuse the financial assistance so that way their views aren't clouded by corporate agendas.We might get there one day but it's unlikely due to the competitive nature of every candidate to try and get our vote. 

https://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/industries.php?cycle=2016&cid=N00029070&type=I&newmem=N
https://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/contrib.php?cycle=2016&cid=N00029070&type=I&newmem=N
https://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/summary.php?cycle=2016&cid=N00029070&type=I
https://himes.house.gov/legislative-resources/committee-assignments