Subject: Wall Street likes WMD.
From: "NotBush2004"

---------------------------------------------------------

Wall Street is throwing its financial support to Bush

Executives pleased with initiatives of past four years

By Ben White, Washington Post, 1/25/2004

NEW YORK -- One unseasonably cool evening in late October, a group of Wall
Street bankers waited aboard a ferry in New York Harbor for the short trip
to Ellis Island and a thank-you event for major backers of President Bush's
reelection campaign.

Ordinarily, the bankers -- unaccustomed to waiting for anything -- might be
annoyed. But on this night they were placid, even though Charlie Black, a
top adviser to the campaign, was running late.

The Bush administration had given the bankers almost everything they ever
dreamed of: a reduction in dividend and capital-gains taxes, a phase-out of
the estate tax, an overall reduction in income taxes. So they waited
patiently, eager to do whatever they could to ensure the president's
reelection.

"Wall Street runs on a good economy, and the president has given us that,"
said Mallory Factor, a merchant banker who was among those on the boat.
"Then you look at the alternatives on the other side. Either one of those
things is enough to make you support the president."

And that's just what Wall Street has done, to an unprecedented extent.
Unlike in 2000, when the industry hedged its bets between Bush and Vice
President Al Gore, Wall Street thus far has put the bulk of its muscle
behind the Republican incumbent.

Through late November, employees of securities industry firms had given at
least $4 million to the Bush campaign, according to the Center for
Responsive Politics. That number will rise significantly -- probably to well
over $7 million -- when figures for the full year are reported at the end of
this month. As of late November, no Democrat had raised more than $1 million
from the industry.

The Bush campaign is not eager to discuss the enthusiastic support it is
receiving from Wall Street. Spokesman Scott Stanzel declined to discuss the
matter, saying only that the president had raised money from "nearly half a
million supporters representing every county in every state."

That reluctance may reflect the fact that the 2004 campaign is unfolding in
a very different environment from 2000, a year in which stocks hit their
bull-market highs and Enron was still a corporate powerhouse.

Since then, the stock market bubble burst and a series of corporate
scandals -- many either directly or indirectly involving Wall Street
firms -- rocked investor confidence. Some of those scandals have been
pursued by New York Attorney General Eliot L. Spitzer, a politically
ambitious Democrat who has become a thorn in the side of the industry, and
corporate wrongdoing has become a frequent theme in the message of Democrats
vying to run against Bush.

Meanwhile, the figures for Bush actually understate the power of his Wall
Street support.

Top bankers and Wall Street executives have Rolodexes brimming with wealthy
friends from every industry, people for whom writing a $2,000 check, the new
limit for individual contributions to federal candidates, hardly requires a
second thought.

Brokers and bankers in New York and across the country said in interviews
that they had made dozens of calls on Bush's behalf, helping in part to
explain the campaign's ability to raise $130 million in 2003, shattering the
previous record for fundraising by a presidential candidate in a single
year.

"I placed a cold call to Mercer Reynolds and asked if I could be
supportive," said a top executive in a Midwestern office of one of Wall
Street's biggest firms. He was referring to the Bush campaign finance
director, himself a former banker with deep ties to Wall Street. "Mercer ask
ed me to call clients and friends, and that's what I did."

The banker, who requested anonymity, said he talked to chief executives of
big companies as well as the heads of major law and other professional
service firms. "Almost no one said no. And most of them agreed to solicit
contributions themselves."

The list of "Rangers," those who have raised at least $200,000 each for
Bush, reads like a roster of Wall Street power brokers. It includes the
chief executives of Merrill Lynch & Co., UBS Wealth Management USA, Credit
Suisse First Boston Corp., and insurance giant American International Group
Inc.

Factor, an independent banker and major GOP fundraiser in New York, is on
the list as well. So is New York Governor George E. Pataki, who put his
powerful Wall Street fundraising network at Bush's disposal. Other Wall
Street executives, including Goldman Sachs & Co. chief executive Henry M.
Paulson Jr., Bear Stearns & Co. chief executive James E. Cayne, and Goldman
Sachs executive George Herbert Walker (the president's second cousin) are
"Pioneers," meaning they have raised at least $100,000 for the president.

Wall Street is not lining up behind the president only for past favors. The
industry has a long legislative and regulatory wish list for the
presidential term ahead. "People are looking for the next administration and
Congress to expand and make permanent the tax cuts" of the last three years,
said Marc E. Lackritz, president of the Securities Industry Association,
Wall Street's main trade group.

Other items on Wall Street's wish list include increasing the number of
tax-favored savings and investment accounts. In his State of the Union
message, Bush reiterated an earlier proposal to allow some Americans to
divert some of their Social Security money into private investment accounts.


http://www.boston.com/news/politics/president/bush/articles/2004/01/25/wa

--
Bush's $10 Trillion Borrowing Binge

WMD = W's Massive Deficit

Why wouldn't Wall Street like Bush's WMD? They were the ones who benefited
from Bush's tax cuts and who don't mind seeing social services cut,
education under funded, infrastructure upgrades undone and environmental
regs gutted as long as it keeps filling their bank accounts.

---------------------------------------------------------

Wall Street is throwing its financial support to Bush

Executives pleased with initiatives of past four years

By Ben White, Washington Post, 1/25/2004

NEW YORK -- One unseasonably cool evening in late October, a group of Wall
Street bankers waited aboard a ferry in New York Harbor for the short trip
to Ellis Island and a thank-you event for major backers of President Bush's
reelection campaign.

Ordinarily, the bankers -- unaccustomed to waiting for anything -- might be
annoyed. But on this night they were placid, even though Charlie Black, a
top adviser to the campaign, was running late.

The Bush administration had given the bankers almost everything they ever
dreamed of: a reduction in dividend and capital-gains taxes, a phase-out of
the estate tax, an overall reduction in income taxes. So they waited
patiently, eager to do whatever they could to ensure the president's
reelection.

"Wall Street runs on a good economy, and the president has given us that,"
said Mallory Factor, a merchant banker who was among those on the boat.
"Then you look at the alternatives on the other side. Either one of those
things is enough to make you support the president."

And that's just what Wall Street has done, to an unprecedented extent.
Unlike in 2000, when the industry hedged its bets between Bush and Vice
President Al Gore, Wall Street thus far has put the bulk of its muscle
behind the Republican incumbent.

Through late November, employees of securities industry firms had given at
least $4 million to the Bush campaign, according to the Center for
Responsive Politics. That number will rise significantly -- probably to well
over $7 million -- when figures for the full year are reported at the end of
this month. As of late November, no Democrat had raised more than $1 million
from the industry.

The Bush campaign is not eager to discuss the enthusiastic support it is
receiving from Wall Street. Spokesman Scott Stanzel declined to discuss the
matter, saying only that the president had raised money from "nearly half a
million supporters representing every county in every state."

That reluctance may reflect the fact that the 2004 campaign is unfolding in
a very different environment from 2000, a year in which stocks hit their
bull-market highs and Enron was still a corporate powerhouse.

Since then, the stock market bubble burst and a series of corporate
scandals -- many either directly or indirectly involving Wall Street
firms -- rocked investor confidence. Some of those scandals have been
pursued by New York Attorney General Eliot L. Spitzer, a politically
ambitious Democrat who has become a thorn in the side of the industry, and
corporate wrongdoing has become a frequent theme in the message of Democrats
vying to run against Bush.

Meanwhile, the figures for Bush actually understate the power of his Wall
Street support.

Top bankers and Wall Street executives have Rolodexes brimming with wealthy
friends from every industry, people for whom writing a $2,000 check, the new
limit for individual contributions to federal candidates, hardly requires a
second thought.

Brokers and bankers in New York and across the country said in interviews
that they had made dozens of calls on Bush's behalf, helping in part to
explain the campaign's ability to raise $130 million in 2003, shattering the
previous record for fundraising by a presidential candidate in a single
year.

"I placed a cold call to Mercer Reynolds and asked if I could be
supportive," said a top executive in a Midwestern office of one of Wall
Street's biggest firms. He was referring to the Bush campaign finance
director, himself a former banker with deep ties to Wall Street. "Mercer ask
ed me to call clients and friends, and that's what I did."

The banker, who requested anonymity, said he talked to chief executives of
big companies as well as the heads of major law and other professional
service firms. "Almost no one said no. And most of them agreed to solicit
contributions themselves."

The list of "Rangers," those who have raised at least $200,000 each for
Bush, reads like a roster of Wall Street power brokers. It includes the
chief executives of Merrill Lynch & Co., UBS Wealth Management USA, Credit
Suisse First Boston Corp., and insurance giant American International Group
Inc.

Factor, an independent banker and major GOP fundraiser in New York, is on
the list as well. So is New York Governor George E. Pataki, who put his
powerful Wall Street fundraising network at Bush's disposal. Other Wall
Street executives, including Goldman Sachs & Co. chief executive Henry M.
Paulson Jr., Bear Stearns & Co. chief executive James E. Cayne, and Goldman
Sachs executive George Herbert Walker (the president's second cousin) are
"Pioneers," meaning they have raised at least $100,000 for the president.

Wall Street is not lining up behind the president only for past favors. The
industry has a long legislative and regulatory wish list for the
presidential term ahead. "People are looking for the next administration and
Congress to expand and make permanent the tax cuts" of the last three years,
said Marc E. Lackritz, president of the Securities Industry Association,
Wall Street's main trade group.

Other items on Wall Street's wish list include increasing the number of
tax-favored savings and investment accounts. In his State of the Union
message, Bush reiterated an earlier proposal to allow some Americans to
divert some of their Social Security money into private investment accounts.

http://www.boston.com/news/politics/president/bush/articles/2004/01/25/wall_street_is_throwing_its_financial_support_to_bush/