Nor does the Constitution mention the Cabinet and a ton of other things. There may be reasons for disliking lobbyists, but the failure of the Constitution to provide for them is not one of them. Secondly, lobbyist do more than provide their clients with legislative access. They also provide Congress with a great deal of valuable information about an industry or a bill which legislators use in making decisions. Legislators depend a great deal on the data that comes from lobbyists. So lobbyists do provide a useful purpose. That includes lobbyists for Common Cause, the NCAA, the Sierra Club as well as lobbyists for the oil industry and the pharmaceutical industry. The point is there is nothing inherently evil or immoral about being a lobbyist. Vitually every one in this country has his or her interests represented in some way by a lobbyist. To think of lobbyists only in the negative is really very myopic.
Exactly. I don't trust the data that come from the lobbyists, it's not balanced, comprehensive, or unbiased. Congress can acquire better data by asking for it themselves, not being lobbied by agneda-driven interests. I disdain their lobbyists, too. I've already said it, but I'll say it again. It's not representation of special interests that bother me, it's the special access, privately conducted, that powerful lobbyists recieve from public officials. They should have no greater access to elected representatives of the people than any voter does.
Just doesn't pass the reality test, Red. It hasn't worked that way for a hundred years. It will never work that way again. Government is too big and too complex. Hell, it takes three or four reelections for a member of the House to even know what the hell is going on... Those reelections don't just happen. They're paid for. It's just reality.
Acceptance of this situation is just sad. Governments evolve or they get stagnant and fail. The people have to push the representatives to make sensible changes. We don't have to wait for the train wreck.
Good thing our founding fathers didn't think this way. Government is too big & too complex, and we need to scale it back. Getting rid of lobbyists would be a part of that.
Took a revolution, brother. You in? I'm not. I agree totally. I'm just holding up the reality filter. When, short of full-up revolution or catastrophe, has a national government gotten significantly smaller once it has settled in to the feedbag? That would be....never. Short of becoming a true democracy or adopting some form of autocracy, both of which would really be scary and practically impossible, I don't see lobbyists going away. It's how 85% of the elected officials inside the Beltway make 75% of their decisions. (numbers pulled right out of my arse :grin
