Wall Street firms donated $11.2 million to members of debt 'super committee'

The bipartisan "super committee" created by the debt ceiling deal is comprised of lawmakers who have received big bucks from special interest groups, according to a report by MapLight.

The committee is tasked with finding at least $1.2 trillion in deficit cuts over ten years.

In total, the twelve members appointed to the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction got nearly $64.5 million from special interests groups over the past decade, with legal firms donating about $31.5 million and Wall Street firms donating about $11.2 million.

Of that $11.2 million, Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase donated approximately $2 million combined.

The members appointed to the committee are Sens. Pat Toomey (R-PA), Jon Kyl (R-AZ), Rob Portman (R-OH), Patty Murray (D-WA), John Kerry (D-MA), and Max Baucus (D-MT) and Reps. Jeb Hensarling (R-TX), Fred Upton (R-MI), Dave Camp (R-MI), Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Xavier Becerra (D-CA), and Jim Clyburn (D-SC).

Democratic and liberal groups donated the third most amount of money, with about $9.6 million in political contributions, and the health industry donated the fourth most, with about $9.3 million.

Club for Growth, a conservative free market group, donated more money than any other organization, contributing a combined $990,066 to the twelve lawmakers. The vast majority of that money went to Sen. Toomey.

Microsoft Corp. donated the second most, with $810,100.

The six Republicans on the committee have signed a pledge by Americans for Tax Reform to vote against any tax increases.

If the panel deadlocks, or Congress fails to approve its recommendations, the debt-limit deal calls for painful automatic cuts of $1.2 trillion to the military and health care for the elderly, designed to be so politically costly to both sides as to compel a compromise.

With AFP.