Obama way ahead of McCain in Wall Street firms funding

Washington, July 1 : Financial industry big houses have contributed almost twice in funds to Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama in comparison to his Republican rival John McCain.

For both candidates, Wall Street's investment and banking sectors have become among their portliest cash cows, contributing 9.5 million dollars to Obama and 5.3 million dollars to McCain so far, The Daily News reported.

"No matter who wins in November, Wall Street will have a friend in the White House," said Massie Ritsch of the Center for Responsive Politics, which crunched the data for The Daily News.

Wall Street's generosity toward Obama, in particular, would seem to run counter to its self-interests.

In addition to calling for corporate and capital gains tax hikes, Obama has proposed raising income taxes on those earning more than 250,000 dollars.

Records show that four out of Obama's top five contributors are employees of financial industry giants - Goldman Sachs (571,330 dollars), UBS AG (364,806 dollars), JPMorgan Chase (362,207 dollars) and Citigroup (358,054 dollars).

McCain's top five donors include Wall Street's Merrill Lynch (230,310 dollars) and Citigroup (219,551 dollars).

"Wall Street wants change and wants a curtailment in spending. It wants someone who focuses on the domestic economy," said Jim Cramer, the boisterous host of CNBC's "Mad Money".

Obama's Wall Street haul is not the biggest ever. That distinction belongs to President George W Bush, who as an incumbent in 2004 raised 10,852,696 dollars from Wall Street interests through April that year - about 1million dollars more than Obama.

ANI