Eric Cantor was criticized for being too cozy with big business. Who funds Kevin McCarthy?

One of economic professor David Brat’s central criticisms of Virginia Rep. Eric Cantor was that the House majority leader was too cozy with big business, leaving him more concerned about his relationships with K Street lobbyists than with his constituents.

Although there are many reasons for Cantor’s shocking defeat last week, Brat’s attacks on the appearance of “crony capitalism” do seem to have resonated with voters in Virginia’s 7th District. Cantor’s ouster forced House Republicans to choose a new leader, and all signs suggest that they will choose House Whip Kevin McCarthy, who has launched an aggressive campaign for the post over the past week, when Cantor steps down from House leadership at the end of July.

But those expecting a real leadership shakeup from the replacement of Cantor by McCarthy will have to keep waiting. On policy, conservatives say McCarthy doesn’t represent much change at all — and may even be more moderate than the outgoing Cantor. And when it comes to donations from big industries, McCarthy’s not much different from the man he hopes to replace, either.

Campaign finance disclosures show that donations to McCarthy, both through his campaign and his leadership PAC, come from many of the same industries as did donations to Cantor. According to data compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics, five industries — securities and investment, real estate, pharmaceuticals, health professionals, and insurance — ranked as the top five sources of campaign donations for both men, and in the same order.

PACs and employees from Goldman Sachs, Blue Cross/Blue Shield and the Charmer Sunbelt Group top the list of donors for both Cantor and McCarthy.

same source.

In 2008, Rand Paul called coal ‘one of the least favorable forms of energy’
This week Paul slammed Obama for his plan to cut carbon emissions
By Chris Moody, Yahoo News
June 2, 2014 12:46 PM
Yahoo News
http://news.yahoo.com/in-2008—rand-paul-called-coal—the-least-favorable-forms-of-energy-164651153.html

In 2008, Rand Paul called coal ‘one of the least favorable forms of energy’

Your link shows Paul saying exactly that - along the way to pointing out that nuclear energy is very clean (certainly chemically). Three Mile Island was back during the Carter administration - an eon ago in computer technology terms. Nobody had even heard of Steve Jobs - or even the term “personal computer” back then. There is not now any excuse for the inability/failure to run computer simulations to predict how your nuclear power plant is going to behave next. And, there is no excuse for not developing thorium breeder reactors, or knowing why they aren’t economic.
And in the context of low-cost shale gas, I really see little reason to be pushing for big new coal fired plants even if you aren’t ready to go nuclear. In cold reality, coal has a lot of competition, and in cleanliness NG would win hands down against coal, and nuclear (at least potentially) is a lot better even than that.
A fairly recent article posted to FR from somewhere pointed out that propane/butane presently is dear (a fact which was brought rather forcefully to my own attention), and that is what it pays the oil companies to drill for. Once the propane prospects justify drilling the well, they tap NG as - not absolutely, but relatively - a byproduct. Which explains why NG is so plentiful, and tends to be too cheap to drill for separately.
But, the Chinese are stamping out coal-fired power plants like cookies - so what do I know? Only that atmospheric CO₂ is much more of a problem if it is generated in the US than if it is generated elsewhere . . . </sarcasm>

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