Cantor Taking Cash From Firms Bailed Out by Taxpayers

Ah, Republican values in action once again:

Rep. Eric I. Cantor, R-7th, the No. 2 Republican in the House of Representatives, is receiving campaign contributions from political action committees controlled by companies receiving federal bailout money.

NBC News and Newsweek have reported that in January and February, Cantor campaign committees accepted $2,500 from Citigroup, $5,000 from Bank of America, $1,500 from Chrysler and $2,500 from American Express.

Citigroup received $25 billion in bailout money under the Troubled Assets Relief Program. Bank of America received $15 billion, American Express $3.4 billion and Chrysler $5.5 billion.

Cantor supported the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program last September...

I mean, it's one thing to have received money from these companies BEFORE they were bailed out by taxpayers (aka, all of us). But Cantor received money from Citigroup, Bank of America, Chrysler and American Express in January and February of THIS year. I believe that's known as "everything we hate about Washington in a nutshell." Good job, Congressman Cantor!

P.S. Democratic gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe has said he will NOT take money from companies receiving taxpayer bailout (TARP) money. Not sure about the other candidates...

Governor Candidates Taking TARP Money

In his conference call Thursday, Terry McAuliffe declared that he will not take any money from a company that took Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) funds (e.g., taxpayer money). To date, TARP beneficiaries include Citigroup, the Bank of America, AIG, JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, General Motors, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, PNC Financial Services Group, US Bancorp, GMAC Financial Services, Chrysler, Capital One Financial, American Express, Bank of New York Mellon Corp., State Street Corp., Royal Bank of Canada, and Discover Financial.

I checked VPAP to see which gubernatorial candidates have received money from these companies in 2008. Here's what I found.

Citigroup: Brian Moran ($7,500), Bob McDonnell ($7,500)
Bank of America: Bob McDonnell ($2,500)
JPMorgan Chase: Bob McDonnell ($2,000)
Capital One: Brian Moran ($2,000), Bob McDonnell ($2,000)

As far as I can tell, through 2008, Terry McAuliffe and Creigh Deeds had not taken any money from companies receiving TARP bailout funds. Brian Moran and Bob McDonnell had. The question is, will Moran and McDonnell continue to do so, will they keep the money they have but take no more, or will they return the money they've already received AND take no more (as Terry McAuliffe has pledged to do)? More broadly, the question is whether or not it's appropriate for candidates to be taking money from firms that U.S. taxpayers have bailed out with billions of their dollars. We'll be watching...