USA Land of the High Priced Lobbyists

[noreaster]

Does your vote really count to the Politicians in Washington or is it all about the lobbyists on K street? How much did you pay to support your favorite lobbyists this month? How much did you local congregation or church give to lobbyists? Well were all going to have to pay up some more money for here come the judge days. That’s right, supreme court judge days.

From –> Courting Lobbyists :

"This is one of those things where I think it is noted who is on board and who is playing, who is supporting the president," Rushton said.

He added that “some degree of incentivizing” has gone on, “from Karl Rove on down” — that is, reminding lobbyists that “this is something that matters to this president and we’re going to appreciate your supporting his judges.”

 

[riverc0il]

the current state of lobbyists is frightening. those that can organize (and have enough money to do so) have a strong voice in washington. those that can not organize and are poor do not have a voice. i really appreciate why the lobby system was set up. we can not all be constantly contacting our representatives and fighting for our causes. lobbyists are insiders that can help influence representatives on our behalf. sounds good huh? however, despite the good intentions of the system, it does not work. most lobbyists work for multi-national corporations that care little about people and only about their business and profits. i recently saw a documentary that stated the media, the organizations that are supposed to be accurately reporting on the government, is the largest lobby group in the united states and spends a lot of money wining and dining and kissing butts of therepresentatives they are supposed to be reporting on. how much negative reporting would you do on a key swing vote politician that you want on your side?

the media aspect is only one example. i often wonder how much influence lobbyists really do have in washington. though given the magnitude of the lobby effort, it must be enough to justify the expense. certainly it does not play into the more well known key issues and platforms of each party. but how about such lobbys are the pharmacutical lobby pushing against generics, imports from canada, and single payer? it is scary that some decisions are being made at a dinner table in DC between a politician and a corporate lobbyist factoring in only the financial effects of big business and not the impact on the people.

the last quote in noreaster's post is whacked. you can almost see someone saying that in a movie as the bad guy then the dark sounding music starting up in the background :lol: