The Bigs

Large lobbying groups spend lots of money and the results are impressive, but with many negative consequences for society.

It seems the last few years our country has seen the formation of lobbying groups that represent similar businesses and industries with huge monetary contributions to influence both legislation and elections. We throw around terms like Big Agriculture, Big Pharma, Big Oil, Big Coal and Big Banking. This umbrella term basically refers to the major for-profit players in each industry sector.

The “Bigs” have several common characteristics. All of them have huge lobbying efforts on K street. They also donate large amounts of political contributions to politicians of both parties. Open Secrets is a treasure trove of information and I will frequently quote their data in the following paragraphs. Be prepared to read a lot of boring figures but keep in mind that these numbers represent how money has effected our government.

Let’s start with Big Pharma. In the category of Pharmaceuticals/ Health products a total of $388,209,872 (that is millions folks) was been spent by 625 clients in the year 2024. The largest amount was spent by the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America that spent $25,946,000. This is a trade and lobbying group that represents American companies in the pharmaceutical industry.

This collective group’s PAC’s also made significant campaign contributions to individual political candidates to the tune of $16,054,355 in 2023-2024. $7,122,008 went to Democrats and $8,876,047 to Republicans from116 PAC’s.

Coming in at number two was the Pharmaceutical Case Management Association at $17,552,844. The Pharmaceutical Care Management Association is an American national trade association representing pharmacy benefit managers. Pharmacy Benefit Mangers have received quite a bit of attention in the past few years as one the main drivers in the increase amount of spending on prescription medications. Some observers have labeled benefit managers as unnecessary “middle men” that are criticized for negotiating large rebates with drug manufacturers but not passing these savings on to patients. Instead, they may pocket these rebates, contributing to artificially high drug list prices. It is a well known fact that the USA spends much more for our prescribed mediations than any other developed country, In addition, these benefit managers may prioritize their own financial interests by steering patients to their own affiliated pharmacies, which are reportedly more profitable. This hurts small, independent drug stores. However this is a topic for another day.

Apparently being a former government employee or elected official is very helpful in landing one of these jobs as 56% of the lobbyists had that background on their resumé. The top two companies leading in spending are Pfizer and Merck. Note that this spending is not campaign contributions as that is a whole other category of influence.

Next on the list of Bigs comes Big Oil. No other industry has done more to lead us to global climate change and the heating of the planet than Big Oil, with the possible exception of Big Coal. The fact is Big Oil has known this for decades from studies by their own industry scientists.

The industry also has polluted our oceans, rivers and streams with major oil spills, pipeline disasters and pollution everywhere. The number of deaths from Cancers of all types by those low income residents near oil refineries is staggering.

The 2024 numbers from Open Secrets show that the Oil & Gas industry spent $153,,161,835 by 197 clients. 63% of the lobbyists are former government employees or elected officials. The top two big spenders in this Big is the Koch brothers and coming in at number two is Occidental Petroleum barely beating out Exxon, Chevron and ConocoPhillips.

As far as campaign contributions go Big Oil overwhelmingly, to no ones surprise, favor Republicans. In 2023-202 a total of $13,044,423 to political campaigns. Of this $13 million plus the Republicans received $11,089,723 and the Democrats $1,925,700. Or you can represent that by a percentage of 85 % of total contributions to Republicans. The number one doner, the aforementioned Koch Brothers, gave Republicans $1,689,050 and the Democrats are grand total of… wait for it, $0.00. Oh well at least the Koch brothers were honest in their biases.

The commercial banking industry in 2024 spent $64,018,887 with 89 clients that had 62% of the lobbyist with previous government experience. The Big commercial banks have been criticized by consumers due to high fees and charges, complex and potentially stringent loan approval processes, a lack of transparency regarding charges and a lack of personalized service. Plus there is a trust due to past scandals, including the bailouts from the 2008 financial crisis due to the sub prime mortgage crisis.

The commercial banks campaign contributions were a total of $11,633,976 in 2023-2024. Of these contributions the banks favored Republicans by 60% giving the GOP candidates over $7 million dollars to $4.5 plus to Democrats.

Next another industry besides Big Oil that is responsible for pollution and global climate change is Big Coal. If there is any good news for the environment it is that this industry is being gradually reduced to the point where there are not that many active coal mines in the US anymore.

Certainly there are thousands of people that lost their means of earning a living the past few years and some regions like Eastern Kentucky were financially devastated and felt abandoned by the rest of the country. Unfortunately neither party has not always followed through on the promise of extensive job training so coal miners could learn a new occupation and have a means to support their families.

Like the pollution that created so many health issues near oil refineries, coal miners for years have suffered from increased cancers and lung diseases of all types, in addition to may other physical ailments that are a result of working underground in a coal mine for decades. The fact that the Opioid Epidemic hit Appalachian communities so hard is further proof of the physical demands place on a coal miner. This section of the country overwhelmingly voted for Donald Trump, yet this administration pressured Congress to pass legislation that may eliminate or reduce many social programs and reduce healthcare benefits. and many rural hospitals may close as well.

The 2024 numbers for the Coal Industry showed $4,085,000 spent with 23 clients and 47 lobbyists which makes up 64% with government experience. Note that sixteen years ago in 2008 25 million dollars was spent on lobbying, a far cry from the 4 million in 2024.

The industry donate $294,700 in PAC contributions to individual candidates in 2021-2022, the last time frame that Open Secrets had data listed. Republicans received 92 % of these contrutions,$271,450 to $23,250.

Agribusiness is a large category with a combination of crop producers, livestock and meat producers, poultry and egg companies, dairy farmers, timber producers, tobacco companies and food manufacturers and stores.

Lobbyist in 2024 spent $180,686,360 with 569 clients, 1,316 lobbyists with 53% of them coming from the government.

Like the Big Oil and Coal industries the agricultural section has received lots of criticisms, especially from environmental and animal rights groups. The use of pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers have adverse effects on pollinators and many fear that the food supply is effected by these chemicals and may cause harm when ingested. Plus the massive amounts of feces generate by livestock can pollute the ground water.

Fertilizers are washed into the watershed from agricultural runoff and the mouth of the Mississippi River in the Gulf of Mexico has a dead zone du to the excess nitrogen and phosphorus that leads to runoff lead to algal blooms that deplete oxygen. The size of the Dead Zone varies annually, often expanding during the summer months. thee victims of this runoff are marine life, including fish and shrimp, that suffers due to hypoxic conditions, leading to fish kills and habitat loss. The area effected is roughly the size of New Jersey.

As far as political contributions to candidates goes in 2023-2024 the totals were $30,731,589 from 271 PAC’s with Republicans receiving 67% of the total contributions., $ 10 million to Democrats and $20.5 to Republicans.

The final “Big” we will look at is the Renewable Energy Sector. Here is Open Secrets summary of this industry: “As the planet warms and natural disasters become more common, the alternative energy production and services industry has played a larger role in politics. Groups in this field promote renewable energy in various forms, including wind, solar, geothermal, hydroelectric, crop-based ethanol and other biofuels. The industry often goes head-to-head with the oil and gas industry, which has historically spent far more on lobbying and political donations.

Individuals and PACs associated with alternative energy production made $13.2 million in federal contributions during the 2020 election cycle. It’s a significant increase from previous years as the industry more than doubled its contributions. The industry has always given more to Democrats than Republicans, but in 2020, it did so at an overwhelming rate. Of partisan contributions, 76 percent went to Democrats, who want to replace fossil fuels with renewable energy sources in an effort to address climate change.

However, it was puzzling to me at first glance that as far as PAC contributions to Candidates in 2023-2024 Republican candidates received 59% of the contributions. A close look at the data shows that most of this money for Republicans came from Ethanol producers, which makes sense.

So to sum its all up, that is if you are still reading after all this boring math I have laid out here from Open Secrets, I believe you can see that objectively the “Bigs” pay millions for all that favorable legislation we see coming out of congress. But the expenditures are obviously worth it, the profit margins prove it as money well spent. When it comes to Congress the old adage “You get what you pay” sure seems apropos. I’m afraid the effects of all this favorable legislation which benefits corporate America does not help alleviate the concerns of the average citizens budget worries.

Note that I have not discussed the “dark money” issue or the Supreme courts 2010 landmark decision in the Citizens United vs. Federal Election Commission 5-4 ruling in this article. When the average American in a swing state is bombarded for weeks on end with election campaign ads, some of them bordering on falsehood’s, we can blame the conservative Supreme Court justices. This one decision has created the legal means for billions of dollars to enter our political apparatus from outside sources and has increased many of the country’s ultra wealthy oligarchs power they never could have imagined prior to the Citizens United decision. The main beneficiaries of this decision is clearly the Republican party.

“In our 35 years of following the money, we've never seen a court decision transform the campaign finance system as drastically as Citizens United," said Sheila Krumholz, executive director of Open Secrets. "We have a decade of evidence, demonstrated by nearly one billion dark money dollars, that the Supreme Court got it wrong when they said political spending from independent groups would be coupled with necessary disclosure."

I suggest going to Open Secrets link below for a good primer on the consequences of this one ruling. It is eye opening.

https://www.opensecrets.org/news/reports/a-decade-under-citizens-united#dark-money