Extortion: How Politicians Extract Your Money, Buy Votes, and Line Their Own Pockets

by Peter Schweizer

Boehner was generally opposed to large tax increases. But in the spring of 2011, he indicated that he might be open to considering a change in the capital gains rate. Boehner then went to Wall Street looking for money. Over a two-day period, June 8–9, he deposited 144 checks worth $274,800 in contributions from hedge-fund and finance executives.42 Thirty-five of those checks, totaling over $56,000, came from employees of a single hedge-fund group, Paulson & Company.43 Paulson execs had never given to Boehner before. Cantor Fitzgerald executives were also quite generous—and also had no prior history of supporting Boehner. But now they needed his “protection.” Would they have done so without this threat?