- Size of fine Merrill Lynch, contributor of more than $2.3 million to federal candidates and parties since 1999, agreed to pay to settle charges of systematically misleading investors: $100 million 1
- Amount Merrill Lynch gave to the Bush-Cheney 2001 Presidential Inaugural Committee: $100,000 2
- Number of $100,000 contributors to the Bush-Cheney 2001 Presidential Inaugural Committee: 225 3
- Number of Bush "Pioneers," individuals who raised at least $100,000 for his 2000 campaign: 214 4
- Amount of money George W. Bush raised from individual donors in 1999 and 2000 as a candidate for president: $101 million 5
- Amount of money President Bush and Vice President Cheney have raised for the Republican Party and its candidates since January 1, 2002: $100 million 6
- Amount contributed by WorldCom in 1999 towards the establishment of the Trent Lott Leadership Institute at the University of Mississippi: $100 to the third ($1 million) [Just a few weeks before this donation, reports the Center for Responsive Politics, Lott appointed a representative of the company to serve on a panel weighing whether taxes should be charged on Internet purchases-a major issue for WorldCom at the time since the company carried much of the Internet's traffic on its fiber optic backbone.] 7
- Average amount given by the Big Five accounting firms and their industry lobby to the 46 Senators and Congressmen who wrote the SEC in 2000, successfully preventing it from cracking down on the industry: $93,000 8
- Odds of being audited by the Internal Revenue Service in 2001 if a taxpayer made over $100,000 a year: .69 out of 100 9
- Odds of same taxpayer being audited thirteen years ago: 11.41 out of 100 10
- Chances that a taxpayer making under $25,000 is more likely to be audited in 2001 than one making over $100,000: 1.2 to 1 11
- Chances that a business making under $25,000 in profits was more likely to be audited than a business making over $100,000: 2.3 to 1 12
- Percentage of large contributors to congressional campaigns who make over $100,000 a year: 81 out of 100 13
- Number of U.S. Senators that are worth $1 million or more: at least 40 out of 100 14
- Odds of a U.S. House incumbent winning election in 2000 if their opponent spent less than $100,000: 100%
- Number of candidates running with 100% full public financing in Maine and Arizona: 353 15
- Number of OUCHes published by Public Campaign since 1997: 100
- And one bonus fact, even though it doesn't involve the number 100:
Pages where two of our Corruption Perception Indexes are reprinted in Kevin Phillips' new best-seller, Wealth and Democracy: pp. 327-328.
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1 Tom Perrotta, "Merrill to Pay $100 Million to Settle Analyst Investigation," New York Law Journal, May 21, 2002.
2 http://www.opensecrets.org/2000elect/other/bush/inaugural.asp
5 http://www.opensecrets.org/2000elect/index/P00003335.htm.
6 http://www.abcnews.go.com/sections/politics/dailynews/The_Note_June21.html
7 http://www.opensecrets.org/news/worldcom/index.asp.
8 Center for Responsive Politics, "Big Five and AICPA [American Institute of Certified Public Accountants] Contributions, 1989-2001," http://www.opensecrets.org/news/accountants/accountants_46members.asp
9 Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, "IRS Audit Rates by Individual Audit Class: Nonbusiness and Business Returns, FYs 1988 Through 2001," http://trac.syr.edu/tracirs/findings/national/ratesTab3.html
13 John Green, et. al., "Individual Congressional Campaign Contributors: Wealthy, Conservative and Reform-Minded," The Joyce Foundation, June 1998.
14 Amy Keller, "Millionaires in Senate Top 40 for First Time," Roll Call, June 20, 2002.
15 Larry Makinson, "The Big Picture: The Money Behind the 2000 Elections," Center for Responsive Politics (Sept. 2001), p. 29.
