Comcast’s political “donations” ensure the Time Warner merger will go through

Lots of people hate the idea of letting Comcast and Time Warner Cable merge but don’t expect our esteemed elected officials to care. Comcast really does have all its bases covered in the Capitol when it comes to making campaign contributions to influential members of Congress. In fact, an examination of public records reveals that Comcast has donated money to “almost every member of Congress who has a hand in regulating it,”. 

There’s little that tends to unite a leading liberal like Dick Durbin and a conservative firebrand like Ted Cruz. But when the two senators join their colleagues for a hearing this month on Comcast’s $45 billion bid for Time Warner Cable, many of them will have something in common — they’ve each collected Comcast cash. The Philadelphia cable giant historically has been a major Beltway player, and it’s sure to strengthen its political offense in order to sell the new, controversial megadeal. Yet even before announcing its plans for Time Warner Cable, Comcast had donated to almost every member of Congress who has a hand in regulating it.