Wall Street is buying Mitt Romney. Whatever they're paying is too much.

By Richard K. Barry 

Not that we needed proof, but now we have it that Wall Street is giving big to Mitt Romney thanks to information provided in campaign finance filings. According to Politico:

Mitt Romney's presidential campaign and the super PAC supporting it are outraising Obama among financial-sector donors $37.1 million to $4.8 million.

Near the front of the pack are 19 Obama donors from 2008 who are giving big to Romney.

The 19 have already given $4.8 million to Romney's presidential campaign and the super PAC supporting it through the end of April, according to a POLITICO analysis of Federal Election Commission filings.

None of them has given a penny to the president's reelection campaign or the super PAC supporting it.

Here's the best part:

Ken Griffin, founder of the Chicago-based hedge fund Citadel, has accused Obama of engaging in "class warfare" and gave $2,500 to Romney's campaign, plus nearly $1.1 million to the pro-Romney super PAC Restore Our Future. But in 2008, Griffin donated the maximum $4,600 to Obama’s campaign and helped raise another $50,000 to $100,000.

"It is critical that the next president appreciates that America's prosperity is driven by the innovation and hard work of the American worker, whose valiant efforts have, in recent years, been undermined by the oppressive weight of government intervention," Griffin told POLITICO in a statement.

And, yes, Romney is helped by Obama's support for Dodd-Frank, and his call for the super-rich to pay a bit more in taxes, not to mention the fact that the President has ever so gingerly suggested that maybe, just maybe, these blood-sucking Wall Street bastards bear some small responsibility for the near destruction of the economy. Hell, no one went to jail, though I'm sure why not.

It is simply amazing that these people have the nerve to claim Obama is engaging in class warfare. The rich have always understood their class interests and they are pouring money hand over fist into arming their side for battle. Nice try of this idiot Griffin to align his interests with the interests of real working Americans.

As Obama said of Romney at a campaign stop in Baltimore on Tuesday:

He seems to believe that if CEOs and wealthy investors like him are doing well, then the rest us automatically do well. What a lot of current Republicans don't seem to get is that a healthy economy doesn't just mean you’re maximizing your own profits through massive layoffs and busting unions. You don't make America stronger by shipping jobs and profits overseas.

Wall Street wants to make middle class Americans afraid to embrace their own class interests by calling what is going on in the country class warfare. But it doesn't matter what you call it. The interests of the 1% are not the same as the interests of the 99%. It's good that we now have campaign finance filing numbers to prove it.

(Cross-posted at Lippmann's Ghost.)