COMMENTARY
This post does not come as any surprise ... it is business as usual. The lobbying industry is not suffering from a recession, in fact it is doing very very well. The double=speak that comes from the Washington professionals disgusts me, and does not confuse me. The problem is that most of the people who pay attention to the mainstream media are hearing a very distorted picture of economic and political analysis, and there is absolutely no accountability for the accuracy of what is getting promulgated.
Peter Burgess

Supercommittee rakes in corporate donations ... A military contractor and a pharmaceutical giant are among those writing checks to protect their business interests

IMAGE Reps. Xavier Becerra and Dave Camp (Credit: Mike Theiler / Reuters)

Deep-pocketed corporate interest are writing big checks to members of the supercommittee, the group of 12 senators and members of Congress who have been tasked with coming up with a plan to cut over $1 trillion from the budget in the next decade.

Ten members of the committee got $83,000 from some of the biggest corporate donors in the country in the three-week period in August that is covered in the latest federal election filings, according to a new analysis by the Sunlight Foundation.

$10,000 of the total came from the political action committee (PAC) of pharmaceutical giant Pfizer. Another $8,000 came from the military contractor Lockheed Martin. Also on the list of donors: Goldman Sachs and Comcast. These are corporations seeking to protect lucrative government contracts.

The supercommittee faces a Nov. 23 deadline to come up with a budget cuts package that will then get an up-or-down vote in the House and the Senate.

The biggest recipient of big donor contributions on the committee was Rep. Dave Camp (R-MI), with $28,500. The biggest recipient on the Democratic side was Rep. Xavier Becerra (D-CA), who took in $15,000.

Remember, these are preliminary numbers. It’s going to be a lucrative few months for those lucky enough to have been appointed to the supercommittee.

Justin Elliott is a Salon reporter. Reach him by email at jelliott@salon.com and follow him on Twitter @ElliottJustinMore Justin Elliott