Report: Bush's policies benefit top fund-raisers

Some analysts wonder if he gives such business executives special treatment.
TOLEDO (AP) -- America's business leaders who raised more than $75 million for President Bush's re-election campaign last year have cashed in with recent federal policy changes, a newspaper reported.
Bush administration policies have financially benefited companies or lobbying clients tied to at least 200 of the president's largest campaign fund-raisers, according to the first of a three-part investigation published Sunday by The Blade.
The spoils sometimes came at the expense of consumers or public health concerns, the report said.
Benefits came in the form of targeted tax breaks, regulatory changes, pro-business legislation, high-profile government appointments and federal contracts.
Bush's policies often benefited the 548 campaign fund-raisers known as "Pioneers" and "Rangers," who each raised at least $100,000 or $200,000 for his 2004 re-election.
Policy changes
Timber barons now pay lower tax rates on logging sales and face fewer barriers to harvesting trees in national forests because of administrative changes and laws signed by Bush, the newspaper said.
Also, clean-air standards -- revised by federal officials -- allow energy producers to dodge potential legal fees and cleanup costs.
A spokesman for the Republican National Committee said Bush has helped the country add 4.4 million jobs since May 2003.
"The President's pro-growth economic policies have helped small business, families, and first-time home buyers," spokesman Aaron McLear said.
Bush's network of elite fund-raisers has come under scrutiny because of a federal investigation into a prominent Ohio "Pioneer."
Toledo-area coin dealer Tom Noe was indicted in October on charges he laundered money into the president's campaign. Noe has denied any wrongdoing.
Nationwide, Bush's elite fund-raisers accounted for at least 28 percent of Bush's $271.8 million in individual contributions for the 2004 campaign, the newspaper said.
Expecting rewards?
Some fund-raisers -- if they haven't benefited already -- hope Bush's policies will add to their wealth soon, The Blade said.
They include Wall Street traders banking on a 2003 dividend tax cut to boost stock prices, doctors seeking caps on their lawsuit liability, pharmaceutical executives waiting for a new federal prescription drug plan to kick millions of dollars their way, and the wife of the chairman of the Hallmark greeting-card company, which is lobbying to slow the increase in postage rates.
All of the campaign fund-raisers interviewed by The Blade said they supported Bush's ideology and style of governance and said they expected no reward but his victory.
"I was pleased he was a candidate. I liked what his father had done," said Herbert Boeckmann, a California Bush "Pioneer" who owns the world's largest Ford dealership. "He was a little bit of a maverick, but he recognized the key was to get the job done."
Campaign-finance analysts question whether Bush's system of recognizing top fund-raisers -- as opposed to donors who cannot give more than $2,000 per election cycle to a presidential candidate -- provides corporate leaders with special treatment.
Steve Weisman, associate director for policy at the Campaign Finance Institute in Washington, said election law does not require candidates to reveal any details about their fund-raising networks.
"Right now, what we know is what the campaigns tell us," he said. "Shouldn't we disclose the people who get credit for arranging for these donations? Isn't there a problem that they might have some undue influence on the recipient?"
Credit company involvement
Employees at Delaware-based credit card issuer MBNA Corp. gave the Bush campaign more than $200,000 in 2000, the most of any company, and allowed the campaign to use an MBNA corporate jet, the report said.
The company worked hard for Bush again last year. Former MBNA Chief Executive Charles Cawley and Vice Chairman Lance Loring Weaver both qualified as "Rangers," each raising at least $200,000 for the president's re-election.
In April, Bush signed a bill, initially crafted by a financial services lobbyist, that places new limitations on filing for personal bankruptcy and imposes higher filing and attorney fees.
"The legislation in effect deputizes the bankruptcy courts as collection agents for the credit-card companies," said Mark Sargent, dean of Villanova University's law school, a bankruptcy expert and critic of the bill.
Based on the market share figures compiled by the industry analyst Web site cardweb.com, the law will give MBNA about $380 million more annually. That figure would feed the company's yearly profit of $2.6 billion.
A message seeking comment from MBNA spokesman Jim Donahue was left Sunday by The Associated Press.
Philip Corwin, an attorney for the American Bankers Association, said the legislation was approved to curb abuses of the bankruptcy system rather than boost the revenues of credit-card companies.
"This is not a windfall," he said.