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By E.J. Dionne
$24.00
By Mark Heisler
$6.00
$24
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Pat Bagley, Cagle Cartoons, Salt Lake Tribune —
Posted on Apr 13, 2013
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By David Sirota — There are two types of money that corrupt our politics. After a national election that cost more than $2 billion, most of us know about the blatant kind.
Posted on Nov 9, 2012
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The 200-plus parties being held around the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Fla., this week provide opportunities for rookies as well as veterans of Congress to rub shoulders with lobbyists for the corporations that make or break their political careers, says Keenan Steiner, a staff writer for the Sunlight Foundation.
Posted on Aug 28, 2012
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Glyn Lowe Photoworks (CC BY-ND 2.0)
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By Justin Elliott, ProPublica —
The congressman who last year took a $22,000 four-day trip to Taiwan organized by lobbyists said Friday that he will personally reimburse the university that paid for the trip.
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Wikipedia
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By Justin Elliott, ProPublica —
Though rules laid down by the House Ethics Committee expressly forbid participation in lobbyist-organized trips, Rep. Bill Owens and his wife took a four-day tour of Taiwan late last year that was arranged by lobbyists with ex-New York Sen. Al D’Amato’s firm, Park Strategies.
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AP photos by Chis Carlson and Charlie Riedel
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By Bill Boyarsky — Of the two top finishers in the Iowa Republican caucuses, it’s hard to tell who is worse: Mitt Romney, the eight-vote winner, or Rick Santorum.
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Doug Wilson
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An analysis by Public Campaign reveals that between 2008 and 2010, 30 of America’s most profitable companies, including Verizon, Wells Fargo, FedEx, GE and Mattel, spent more money buying influence in Washington than they did paying taxes. (Full list after the jump.)
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MSNBC journalist Chris Hayes brings us a memo written by a Washington lobbying firm staffed with former aides of Republican Speaker John Boehner offering American bankers a near $1 million publicity blitz against Occupy Wall Street and its congressional supporters. (more)
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DoD
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The Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction (also known as the “supercommittee,” because it is made up of equal parts Republican, Democrat, House and Senate) was set up to cut $1.5 trillion from the budget. Though military enthusiasts make a great show of worry for defense spending, they have little to fear ... (more)
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Flickr / Keith Allison (CC-BY-SA)
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By Joe Conason — There is nothing fresh or surprising about Rep. John Boehner, R-Ohio, the would-be speaker, a figure so closely associated with corporate special interests that he looks, sounds and behaves exactly like a lobbyist.
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Flickr / Richard Loyal French (CC-BY-ND)
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A 10-year study of the influence business finds that the billions of dollars ($3.5 billion in 2009 alone, according to the Center for Responsive Politics) thrown at elected officials add up to a whole lot of nothing—that is, the influential spend a lot of time, energy and cash stalemating each other and keeping things the way they are.
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By Ruth Marcus — The government’s struggles with infant formula, of all things, offer a broader lesson in how hard it is to take even the most common-sense steps to save taxpayer dollars.
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Flickr / kevindooley (CC-BY)
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The Supreme Court has pretty much decided the National Rifle Association’s main issue, but the pressure group, which has managed to make a plaything of Congress, shows no signs of disarming or disbanding. Instead, the gun lobby has set its sights on health care, Elena Kagan and other matters of state.
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White House / Pete Souza
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By Chris Hedges — A close reading of the new health care legislation, which will conveniently take effect in 2014 after the next presidential election, is deeply depressing.
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AP / Henny Ray Abrams
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In what is being hailed as the biggest bid to change financial regulation since Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s New Deal, the House of Representatives on Friday passed the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2009. In a press conference after the vote, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi proclaimed, “We are sending a clear message to Wall Street: The party is over.”
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Flickr.com / HSeverson
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With six lobbyists for every congressperson and $380 million spent on lobbying in recent months, the health care industry has pulled out all the stops in battling against any reform to the nation’s health insurance system, no matter how watered down it might be.
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Flick/jeffandmandyg
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According to The Washington Post, the U.S. health care industry has hired over 350 ex-government officials and ex-members of Congress to influence their former colleagues in the debate over health care reform. The newspaper’s report says three out of every four major health care companies employ at least one government insider and an estimated $1.4 million is spent daily on lobbying efforts by the health care industry.
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By Marie Cocco — Sorry to rain on the inaugural parade, but we need to find a better way to pay for these things. The financing of President-elect Barack Obama’s big day is just as much of an embarrassment to the country as the financing of inaugurations past.
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collage: DoD / Flickr (Marcn)
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The answer is William Timmons, a lobbyist tapped by McCain to head his transition team. Timmons was connected to a lobbying effort on behalf of the Hussein regime, though he has denied any wrongdoing.
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aoc.gov
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All three presidential candidates are scheduled to be back in Washington, D.C., on Thursday. A Republican senator has proposed a yearlong ban on earmarks and, shocking though it may seem, John McCain, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are apparently on board with the idea. Their colleagues in the Senate, however, are somewhat less enthusiastic.
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The issue of campaign financing was raised once again during Monday’s debate between the Democrats, so we thought we’d check the numbers and see how much the candidates are getting and from whom.
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By Marie Cocco — With the furor over the war funding bill, you may not have noticed that Congress did something right this week. Although it will likely threaten their tenuous hold on a majority, the Democrats pushed through legislation to further limit the influence of lobbyists in Washington.
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By E.J. Dionne, Jr. — If the Democrats don’t make good on their election-year promises to reform the lobbying system, they won’t deserve to hold power.
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The bill, which passed 90 to 8, requires lobbyists to disclose more information about their interactions with lawmakers, but there’s little increase in the enforcement of ethics laws.
Posted on Mar 29, 2006
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In the wake of the Jack Abramoff meltdown, House GOP leaders claim that they want at least a temporary ban on privately funded travel for lawmakers, plus some restrictions on lobbyists.
It shouldn’t have taken a scandal the magnitude of the Abramoff case to convince these lawmakers to do the right thing. This latest move seems a cynical ploy destined to “sunset” as soon as public attention is turned elsewhere.
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Both Republicans and Democrats are canceling meetings with lobbyists in the wake of the Abramoff scandal. | story
Pardon our cynicism, but as long as lobbyists have money to dole out, lawmakers will find a way to the trough.
Any lobbying-reform legislation that results from this scandal will be rendered moot as quickly as you can say “McCain-Feingold.”
Posted on Jan 31, 2006
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