Follow the Money: Biggest Campaign Contributors 2016, by Company and Industry

"The importance of money flows from it being a link between the present and the future." ~ Economist John Maynard Keynes (1883-1943)

Campaign contributors 2016: Politicians famously fail to follow through on their campaign promises once elected. Just look at the track record of our current leadership...

U.S. President Barack Obama has kept less than half (45%) the promises he made during the 2008 and 2012 presidential cycles, according to PolitiFact. He has broken 22% of promises and compromised on 25%.

Meanwhile, GOP members in Congress have delivered on only 38% of their 2010 campaign pledges. At 32%, they have broken almost as many, and compromised on 30%.

Contenders in the 2016 presidential election will likely follow the trend. That's why it's important to "follow the money" - the massive donations pouring in from 2016's biggest campaign contributors. Cash flow can be a much better indicator of politicians' true agenda than their actual words.

For instance, we raised our eyebrows last week when Hillary Clinton came out with plans to crack down on Wall Street. Her donor roster reveals she is backed by several Wall Street bad actors - such as her all-time top career campaign donor Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C). The firm has given Clinton a whopping $782,327 since 1989, and counting.

Yet Citigroup is one of the firms responsible for the 2008 financial crisis - the type of activity that Clinton would surely want to "crack down" on. The firm was ordered to pay out a $7 billion settlement by the U.S. Department of Justice on July 14, 2014, for selling bad mortgage-backed securitizations.

You can bet favors will be owed to the big businesses and sectors that helped secure the winner's office. So using unbiased FEC data compiled by Opensecrets.org through July 21, we have identified the top campaign contributors to each of the 2016 presidential candidates, by company and by industry...

List of Biggest Campaign Contributors by Company and Industry

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Stay tuned to Money Morning for more on the 2016 presidential election. You can follow us on Twitter @moneymorning or like us on Facebook.

Presidential Politics in Hollywood: The race is on for 2016 presidential candidates. A wide field of 21 hopefuls - 15 Republicans and six Democrats - are busy vying for campaign donations, and a few big-name Hollywood celebrities have already picked their candidate favorites. Here are ten celebrities that are already major presidential campaign donors this year...

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