LETTER: Billionaires contribute to Republicans

To the Editor:

Last week Ed Knops provided us with information on the Democrats big-money man George Soros. Ed told us Soros “is an extreme wealthy Socialist, and … with his enormous wealth he can just about buy anything, even the Presidency of the United States.”

Because of space limitations, perhaps Ed was not able to include all the details about Soros, so I will provide the details.

According to the 2012 Forbes billionaire list, Soros is the 11th richest person in the United States. In 2003, Soros said the “central focus of my life” was to remove President Bush from office. During 2003-04, Soros donated more than $23 million to various political groups dedicated to defeating Bush. Despite his millions, Soros was unable to stop Bush’s re-election.

Evidently Knops didn’t have enough room in his letter to talk about other billionaires contributing large sums to defeat presidential candidates. For instance, Jim and Ann Walton listed by Forbes as the seventh and eighth richest people in the United States, like to contribute millions to Republican causes. A favorite cause of the Walton’s is eliminating the estate tax. Republican Presidential candidate Mitt Romney favors eliminating the estate tax. Such a move would save the Walton’s an estimated $32.7 billion.

Don’t forget Sheldon Adelson, the sixth richest U.S. billionaire on Forbes list. Adelson dumped $10 million into Newt Gingrich’s joke of a primary campaign. Switching his betting chips to the Romney campaign, casino mogul Adelson said his contributions to Romney could be “limitless” and would likely top $100 million.

Then there’s Charles and David Koch, who are tied for fourth on Forbes list of U.S. billionaires, each have a $25 billion fortune. The Koch’s have pledged to spend $395 million on Republican causes in the 2012 election cycle. With the elimination of the estate tax, the Koch’s would save more than $17 billion in taxes.

Including Adelson and the Walton’s and Koch’s, at least 32 of Forbes 400 richest Americans are pumping large sums of money into the Romney campaign.

Mr. Knops was unclear as to whether he opposed billionaires in general manipulating the United States political process or just billionaires supporting Democrats. Maybe Knops is too busying transcribing Glenn Beck conspiracy theories into letters to the editor to realize Soros contributions are chump change compared to what is being dumped into the 2012 Republican money machine.

Maria A. Nelson

New Richmond

Tags: letters to the editor, opinion