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Big Banks Pay $29.8 Million to Lobbyists
Wall Street banksters and K Street lobbyists are teaming up to stop real financial regulatory reform that puts Main Street interests over Wall Street profits. Wall Street expenditures on K Street are up 12% from 2008 to $29.8 million last year. The LA Times has the story:
Reporting from New York - Even as the financial industry has sought to keep a low public profile, some of the country's largest banks have ramped up their spending on lobbying to fight off some of the stiffest regulatory proposals pending in Congress.
Lobbying expenditures jumped 12% from 2008 to $29.8 million last year among the eight banks and private equity firms that spent the most to influence legislation, according to data compiled from disclosure forms filed with Congress.
The biggest spender was JPMorgan Chase & Co., whose lobbying budget rose 12% to $6.2 million, enough for the firm to have more than 30 lobbyists working for it. Among other banks, spending on lobbying rose 27% at Wells Fargo & Co. and 16% at Morgan Stanley.
"I have never seen such a scrum of bank lobbyists as I have in the last year -- and I've worked on quite a few bank issues over the years," said Ed Mierzwinski, a lobbyist for the U.S. Public Interest Research Group, a coalition of state consumer organizations. "It seems like everybody is out of work except for bank lobbyists."
Wall Street banksters are spending tens of millions on K Street lobbyists to protect their profits and the status quo. Do you stand with Wall Street banksters and K Street lobbyists? Will you stand up for real reform?

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