The phone company does a lot of business with the U.S. government.
AT&T customers, pay attention: your phone company is trying to raise your rates.
No, not your phone rates: your tax rates.
And therein lies a story.
If federal campaign contributions are any guide, the CEO and chairman of AT&T, Randall Stephenson, is, or was, a solid Republican. In February, he gave $30,800 to the Republican National Committee. In September, he gave $20,000 to a committee affiliated with Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign. There were no similar gifts from Stephenson to the Obama campaign or to the Democratic National Committee, according to Federal Election Commission records.
AT&T’s federal political action committee also gave $10,000 to the Romney campaign. The AT&T political action committee’s giving in the 2012 cycle favored Republican candidates, who received about $1.6 million, over Democrats, who received about $850,000, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
So it was something of a surprise to see AT&T issue a statement on Friday afternoon from Stephenson calling for a federal budget deal that, he said, “will require a compromise involving an increase in both tax rates and revenue.”
CONTINUED at Reason. Written by Ira Stoll.
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