Indeed, the Roundtable's membership roster is a who's who of companies that have major stakes in whether Congress permanently approves normal trade relations with China. That's a 32 percent increase over contributions during the 1996 election cycle and 25 percent more than contributions given in 1997 and 1998. Overall, the Roundtable's biggest contributors are companies with the most to lose should Congress reject the China legislation. According to the company, Boeing built almost 70 percent of the commercial aircraft flying in China today. If you think companies aren't using campaign contributions as leverage in the China debate, think again.
Free trade is certainly one element that goes into that.
The average money gap is even wider when broken down by party. Click here to see how much members of the Business Roundtable have contributed this election cycle, as well as their contributions to members of the House.