Today, Joe Biden will be headlining a fundraiser with Democratic megadonor and environmentalist Tom Steyer in San Francisco. Steyer, a retired hedge fund manager who accumulated over $1.5 billion before his retirement, is planning to spend $100 million to support Democrats during the 2014 election. Biden’s decision to headline a fundraiser with Steyer stands in stark contrast to his previous comments.
In 2010 Biden attacked Republicans for having a “‘stable of billionaires’ to funnel money into key political races.” Biden further attacked big money in elections saying “billionaires and millionaires, insurance companies, oil companies, major executives” have little in common with most voters. Now that a “major executive” is spending money to support liberals, Biden appears to be supportive of taking their money.
To make matters worse, Biden has recently been campaigning across America promoting infrastructure spending and touting the jobs it will create. Steyer however, has spent millions lobbying against the Keystone XL pipeline and plans to spend $100 million to support environmentalist candidates that would likely oppose the pipeline.
The State Department has estimated the Keystone XL pipeline would create over 42,000 jobs. Steyer’s decision to fundraise with Biden comes shortly after the Obama administration delayed a decision to approve or reject the pipeline. Despite supporting more infrastructure spending Biden has stated he opposes the pipeline.
As Biden tours the nation promising that more infrastructure spending would create new jobs, Biden and Obama continue to delay the job creating pipeline because of the influence Steyer has bought.
To add to the hypocrisy, as a hedge fund manager Steyer profited by “invest[ing] in companies developing tar oil sands in Canada, as well as an oil pipeline company.” Now that Steyer has profited from oil, he seeks to deny others the same opportunity. For Biden and his liberal allies, it’s more “do as I say and not as I do.”