Want to know what’s wrong with our government? Ask a lobbyist!
A key quote from this New York Times story (free registration required): “You increase your influence and access by doing fund-raisers,” said James C. Pyles, a lawyer and lobbyist for psychoanalysts and home care agencies. “If you’re not on the donor list, you don’t have much access.” Politicians constantly deny being influenced by donations (AKA bribes), but apparently the lobbyists who account for most large donations disagree. Who’s lying here?
Here’s the next paragraph from the story quoted above:
Ms. McDaid, who lobbies for hospitals and ambulance companies, said: “In the old days, the requests for political giving went mainly to your clients’ political action committees. Now health care lobbyists have to tithe personally. The bigger your client base, the more pressure there is to give. It’s not unusual for a lobbyist at a big firm to give $25,000 to $50,000 in personal contributions to Congressional candidates in a two-year election cycle.”
These lobbyists are hired by businesses whose fortunes are directly affected by legislation written by the people to whom they give money. Regulatory agencies that turn legislation into day-to-day rules, and enforce those rules, are controlled, in the end, by those same elected politicians, up to and including the President.
Businesses that pay lobbyists expect to get a return on their investment, just as they expect to get a return on an investment in new trucks, an ecommerce Web site or anything else. If they don’t believe they are getting a decent return from a factory or distribution center, they close it. But if the lobbyists quoted by the New York Times are telling the truth, lobbying pays off well enough that companies in the health care field — and presumably others — are increasing their lobbying budgets like mad.
Where does that leave the rest of us?
Basically, we’re screwed. Mr. or Ms. Big Donor can call your congressperson or senator and get a hearing. Often Big Donor gets to look at legislation before it’s introduced or — in too many cases — gets to help write that legislation. When was the last time you called one of your federal representatives and had him or her return your call? When was the last time you suggested a bill and had it introduced in Congress?
I have nearly given up. Our government is for sale, and those of us who don’t have hundreds of thousands of dollars to spend on donations/bribes can’t afford to buy even a tiny piece of it.
The only hope we have is a major “throw the rasacals out” movement, much like the one that allowed Republicans to take over the House of Representative in 1994 after years of Democratic domination. Although the cost of playing in the Washington swamp is higher now than it was back then, the principles are the same. The fact that Republicans are now the most corrupt group doesn’t mean Republicans are inherently more evil than Democrats, just that they’re the ones in power at the moment.
I have always avoided voting for lawyers or preachers, figuring they would do more harm than good in public office. Now I’m going to add “incumbents” to my no-vote list. I suggest you do the same, regardless of party affiliation (or lack thereof).
The vote is the only power we ordinary citizens have left. And if we don’t use it to inject some fresh, comparatively untainted blood into Congress in 2006 and 2008, we might as well give up and accept a government of, by, and for the highest bidder — who is not going to be you or me.