Reply #3: That's exactly it

[ProSense]

What's not clear to me is what any of this really means. As you point out, when employees of a large firm or institution contribute through a pac, it's hard to know exactly what's going on. How much of this is directed or forced campaign money (e.g., people feel they have to give through the pac to keep their jobs, because the boss likes it), how much of it is just workers contributing. I've never been able to figure out the big story on these numbers. You can see trends by industry, but it's not as black and white, I think, as many like to portray it.

The media and people like to throw these numbers around as if they mean anything by themselves. There is a huge difference between one million individuals contributing $25 and a PAC or top executives of a company contributing thousands of dollars.

The too much money in politics, the influence peddling, is being fueled by big donors, PACs, lobbyyist and the outside groups.