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Now, welcome to the award-winning BestOfTheLifetime podcast with Cups Today from the Sunlight Foundation, Common Sense with Dan Carlin, the Tom Hartman program,

Moyers & Company, and Lawrence Lessig.

And a quick warning that today's episode contains trace elements of hope not usually found in the show, and may want to be avoided by those who prefer the perpetually bone-crushing despair brought on by a progressive worldview.

The 2012 election was a record breaker.

Contributions topped 6 billion, making it the most expensive election in US history.

So, who helped fuel this flood of money?

There are about 314 million people living in the US.

Of that population, about 25 million people gave money to politicians.

But when analyzing data about who gives this money, we noticed there is one distinct political donor class that rises above in power and wealth.

We call them the 1% of the 1%.

Let's look and see the extraordinary influence this small fraction of Americans has on politics as we know it.

These top donors accounted for 28% of all disclosed money in federal elections last year.

Yet the 1% of the 1% is so small, it would not even fill half a football stadium.

The 1% of the 1% gave 1.7 billion in 2012 to support candidates, campaign committees, political parties, and super PACs.

Who knows how many of them gave to dark money groups?

What does it take to be part of the 1% of the 1%?

Give at least $12,950 and you're in the club.

We expect that figure to rise in 2014.

And while the 1% of the 1% is a very small group of Americans, their money supported every US representative and senator elected to Congress last year.

These mega donors have effectively become the financial gatekeepers of Hukan and cannot run for public office.

Now it is more important than ever to have real-time disclosure rules around campaign contributions.

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