Last Friday I initiated this discussion about lobbying:
How's this for a nightmare? The Gulf of Mexico has 27,000 abandoned oil and gas wells, many seriously deteriorating, and largely ignored by industry and government. Wonder why very little actual legislation surfaces in Congress to check them? The oil industry spends around $150 million/year on lobbyists. They, the Military-Industrial Complex and Farm Lobby pretty much run D.C. I know, I was there. They're good! Well, not good good, but they know how to spin the wheels of government. We do need a total makeover of our form of democracy. The only way this is going to happen is a monumental crisis, as, perhaps suggested in my recent Huffington Post article entitled, The 10% Simple Solution to Peace.
According to Sima Gandhi of the Center for American Progress, just the royalty relief program that Congress created in 1995 to encourage oil companies to drill offshore annually amounts to $80 billion. Mind you, this is 80 times the amount that the U.S. Department of Energy spent on renewable energy research each year in the decade period prior to Obama. This specific tax relief to oil companies occurs every year.
Well, the 12July2010 issue of TIME magazine cover and featured article is "The Best Laws Money Can Buy." Some interesting points (with my enhancements):
- 2,000 lobbyists registered for the financial industry. Can you imagine how many others did not sign up? There are 22,000 official federal lobbyists.
- The Social Security Act in 1935 had 28 pages. The Financial Reform bill included 2319 pages.
- In 1998, $1.4 billion was spent on lobbyists. In 2009, $3.5 billion. Thus, that $150 million/year for oil lobbying was nothing compared this year to banking and health.
- Mind you, lobbyists serve useful functions. They write speech drafts for staff members, and, certainly amendments to bills, all to the favor of their clients. Some actually craft the entire original bill in certain cases and pass them on to committee contacts. Members call in both sides of an issue into their room and ask them to debate to gain a sense of reality and knowledge. Lobbyists are the most informed people on any given issue.
- Lobbbyists are your best fund raisers. A good analogy was used. Our court system features lawyers pleading their case to judge and jury. Congress is somewhat similar, except these lawyers provide information and re-election money to judge and jury. What can you expect.
- Senators and Representatives make $174,000/year. Their higher ranking staff get close to this figure. Jennifer Goto Sabas, for example, earned $164,000 this past year, and James Sakai, $163,000. Top lobbyists get millions/year. Of those 2,000 finance lobbyists mentioned above, 1,400 once worked for Congress or the Administration. The average congressional staffer only spends two years in servitude. You wonder why some people make a life of DC? Money and power.
- Lobbyists certainly want their bill passed. However, taming a bill is usually more important and realistic than killing one. Lobbyists are famous for compromises. They tweak definitions and sometimes make the language so abstruse that the eventual Administration staffer they influence can justify certain decisions to the benefit of the company or organization.
- Lobbyists argue that the legislative and political system would grind to halt without their lubrication. They could be right.
Wonder why there is no national energy policy or global warming act? If you try lobbying yourself, you will be outnumbered and outspent on an issue of any importance to these lobbying consortia.
So what is the simple solution to lobbying? Make any political contribution or favor illegal. Of course, Congress will need to pass this legislation, so forget it! I couldn't find this fact in my virtual files, but I remember something to the effect that during the Constitutional Convention, Thomas Jefferson and either James Madison or Benjamin Franklin lost on a vote to make it a crime to influence Congress. Such an amendment might be better than our current state of affairs. Alas. That moment passed, so back to my original premise regarding The 10% Simple Solution to Peace.
-
The Dow Jones Industrials edged up 18 to 10,216, and world markets also mostly increased. Gold dropped $15/toz to $1196 and oil is just at about $75/barrel.
-
Typhoon Conson (known as Tropical Storm Basyang in the Philippines) formed 400 miles east of Manila, and should make landfall late tomorrow just north of the city.
The disturbance in the East Pacific south of Central American is continuing to move west.
-
No comments:
Post a Comment