Published: October 11, 2008
The Walton Family's Right Wing Corporate Agenda for Wal-Mart
By WalmartWatch.com
New Wal-Mart Watch website "Waltoninfluence.com" premieres today
Today Wal-Mart Watch launched a new website - Waltoninfluence.com - which analyzes and tracks the Walton family's and Wal-Mart's growing influence on American politics.
Although Sam Walton believed his company should stay out of politics and stick to retailing, Wal-Mart's strategy changed immensely after his death. From 1999 to 2007, Wal-Mart's lobbying expenditures for outside firms increased 7425%. Although Wal-Mart attempts to tout its bipartisanship, the Wal-Mart PAC has given the vast majority of its over $7.5 million in the past decade to the Republican Party and other conservative groups.
With more than $12 billion in profits last year, Wal-Mart is the biggest and arguably most powerful corporation in America. Sam Walton's heirs, the majority owners of the company, are worth over $100 billion - making them the wealthiest and certainly one of the most influential families in America.
During the past year, Wal-Mart Watch conducted an analysis of public lobbying and political contribution records for the Walton family and Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., in order to determine how this influence is used to affect politics and policy. The conclusion is clear. Wal-Mart and the Walton family spend millions of dollars every year to fund an extreme right wing corporate agenda that is often directly at odds with the interests of Wal-Mart's workers and shoppers.
The new website features data on Wal-Mart's lobbying compiled by Wal-Mart Watch and complete data on Wal-Mart and the Walton family's political contributions pulled from opensecrets.org and followthemoney.org.
The full impact of the Walton family's and Wal-Mart's political giving is difficult to determine because they hide behind various organizations, trade groups and associations. However, from what is transparent, it is clear that the Waltons do not have the best interest of Wal-Mart workers or many of their customers in mind when exerting their political influence.
For instance, Wal-Mart has lobbied against increased port security and Country of Origin Labeling (COOL) on food products, as well as the Patients Bill of Rights. Additionally, despite the company's so-called "sustainability" campaign, it opposed carbon offset guidelines - which most environmentalists view as necessary to fighting global warming. Meanwhile, the Walton family has spent tens of millions of dollars supporting issues like social security privatization, the repeal of the estate tax, and a stunning $48 million in 2006 alone to fund the school vouchers and charter schools movement.
"This new website allows anyone to take a good look at Wal-Mart's role in American politics," said Wal-Mart Watch Executive Director David Nassar. "The average Wal-Mart shopper would likely be surprised by the Walton family's right wing political agenda, which is not in the best interest of either Wal-Mart workers or many of Wal-Mart's customers. We hope the information will be helpful to a growing group of citizens who are increasingly concerned about the political influence of Wal-Mart and the family behind it."
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