Personally, I believe proffesional lobbying should be banned.   Only citizens should be allowed to lobby the government.  One person, one voice.   Please tell me if the constitution specifically allows paid lobbyists.
This country although not perfect has it's hopes and dreams and strengths based on equal rights and equal opportunity.
The process definetely favors the rich.  

Not only lobbying is a CLASSIC CONFLICT OF INTEREST as it conveys the will of fewer over the greater. 

In the private sector companies are changing
policies to prevent lobbying to affect
business decisions.  Inter-relations are less personal, more ethical and fair to all bidders.  You also pay your own dinner, entertainment and expenses.  Why should government, in special, be excused to have the highest of standards?  Lobbying should be outlawed, pure and simple.

Like the election vote, only individuals should have the that right to express grievances. Lobbying is another instance where the governments of this great country "interpret" the will of the founding fathers to their convenience.  WHAT A SHAME!  This, the constitution that inspired so many independent countries throughout the world has been so violated for the last 80 years... and so has our freedoms.

Everybody's bought & paid for. When I worked for the amusement park industry, we paid off a legislator every year when a particular issue came before Congress. Closer to  home, the state lobbyist for Monsanto lives a mile down the road from me. At last year's hearing before thePesticide Board, he didn't even have to open his mouth. I'm sure the envelopes were under their chairs.

What some seem to be missing is that the issue isn't whether companies should be prevented from lobbying but rather that corporations are legally treated as if they ARE people. Essentially, since 1868, corporation are granted the same rights as individuals, including the right to advocate for that which is in their best interest.  

This created the environment which allowed JD Rockefeller, Andrew Carnegie and JP Morgan to dominate the late 19th century and early 20th century economic and political landscape.

 To the extent that most corporate entities operate in a fundamentally amoral way, and some are downright evil, the bankrupt situation we are in now is the direct result of this corporate welfare state. Check out zeitgeist.com to learn more

how does lobbying for advantage - at somebody else's expense - shelter under the umbrella of petitioning gov for redress of grievances?

"When I use a word", Humpty Dumpty said in a rather scornful tone, it means just what I choose it to mean - neither more nor less."

These are the top ten reasons nothing of significance comes out of Wahsington.  Too many so called representatives listen to these "greed mongers," and as in the recent cry, by the citizens not to bail out the banks went unheard.  The same reasons drugs are the dominate factor in health care, and an educational system that is about to go over a cliff.  Our energy policy is in the toilet, and we have trade deals that only benefit the other guy.  At the same time a death of one's own choosing when terminal, is out of our hands as well.  What a mess.

Banking is the main reason we now live under a "FASCIST" regime, and not a Democracy as we have been taught.  Thank you President Wilson, and all who followed as President, and did nothing to rectify this problem.  With our present economic problems, about to take us under, the intelligent can look back on the Wilson stupidness as a reason why.

Commonsense says if the guy who works the assembly line at Ford cannot afford to have lobbyist on Capital Hill 24/7, then BIG PHARMA should not be allowed this advantage.  But each election season we continue to reelect those of the same mind set, and the voices of the masses go unheard.  The bottom line is that it is our own fault, we are complacent, we leave too much up to others, we do not think we need to be personally involved, thereby giving power to others to Lord over us.  That is correct "we" gave them the power.  Since they ( our elected officials ) have no connection to Hollyweird, music, or sports, we are unconcerned.  They are not Lindsay Lohan, Will Smith, or Dereck Jetter, so why pay attention?

Focusing on lobbying and calling for more unconstitutional legislation to curb it is a waste of energy in the wrong direction. Lobbyists are a symptom, not the problem!

Lobbyists exist because they buy what the politicians are selling. If the politicians were required to obey their oath of office to "defend the Constitution against enemies, foreign and domestic" they would not have anything to sell to the lobbyists. If the lobbyists couldn't buy the favors, they would just go away....

Lobbying has definitely gone out of style. Assasinating lobbyists was a mainstay of the campaign. Thus having erradicated the human rights advocates the big donor, industry and lawyer lobbyists, protected behind thick steel doors with security codes and bribed guards, now run amok. Congress reached new lows in popularity, 8%, and started pouring money into bailouts. Here we need a little clarification because the bank is not just any corporation. A banking bailout or nationalization seems to indicate a totalitarian regime whereas industry subsidies a fascist regime. What does this mean? For you and me, don't file a lobbying activity disclosure this year, or maybe ever. In a fascist state you might be able to save 5 cents for every dollar of your bill but it will come out of your health, in a totalitarian state the government fails literacy so badly that for every step forward you take in your lobbying disclosure the state takes two steps back, being careful to completely squash the author, with each step.

Only 6k views and a few comments on real history, not some 'historical' inaccuracies taught in today's schools.  We need 60 million views and they need to have an understanding of just what is happening here in this country.  The 'news' is censored, and created for mass consumption and is filled with propaganda.  If you really want to know about the health industry and its devious plans, just check this out:

www.genomex.com/.../SterilizationVaccine.ppt

www.lifesitenews.com/.../04031101.html

www.lifesitenews.com/.../08081407.html

www.whale.to/.../sterile.html

Our gov and agencies involved in sterilization through vaccination... just like Children Of Men, the film, in a case.  I mention this only because our real health care industry has been hijacked for abusive practices of control, instead of curing individuals.  Imagine if the above $$$ was spent on healing people, not profit and control.  It is not only scary, but sickening.  We divide our family and give control to the state.  Reduce the work force.. only one parent go to work.  I know, some will say, but we can't support ourselves..  Yes, you can.  We, through manipulation created an excess of workers that compete for limited jobs and reduced pay.  Raising children IS the key for survival and buying them junk because you cannot spend time with them is insane.  I learned quite a bit in college, but not many truths.  Profit as the key to corporate success puts ethics, quality and social responsibility down on the list; I believe our gov should punish, through tariffs and taxation those 'american' corps that have their production through slave labor overseas, to the extent that producing here becomes no more expensive.

Something must change.

Anyone can see by the figures cited here that pharma is a major player and that they pretty much have their way or they'll be supporting other candidates who will comply with their interests. The next itme your doctor pushes a med on you, think about the ball game tickets, free gourmet lunches for all the employees, gifts for the families, etc. that are likely influencing the prescription you about to swallow.

as long as politicians are allowed to accept campaign funds and as long as there are no term limits, corruption will characterize out gov't. Most don't realize that their votes/influence are nullified by financial behemoths who virtually own the very political officials they voted into office. Most are not aware of the power of the revolving door syndrome that is the collusion among fed agencies, lobbyists and corporations, thereby usurping the interest of the people in favor of the interests of those with financial influence. In effect, corporations have replaced the American people as constiuents of the politicians they put into office. American gov't by and for the people has morphed into gov't by and for corporations whose interests are often contrary to those of the people.

Excellent article.  When I left nursing in 1991 to be at home, the doctor I worked for called our very aggressive drug reps - drug pimps - and tried hard to avoid them.

Prior to 1868, non of these lobbyist existed, much less the institutions they represent, nor were they ever needed. Ever since the first immigrant stepped foot in this country until that time, there was rarely any sickness that ever needed prescription drugs and people lived pleasant healthy lives all the way up to 80-90 years. There was no need for insurance or nursing homes, because families and small communities took care of their elderly. There were no business associations because most people were either farmers or small business owners in small towns. Prosperity at the time was measured by land ownership and/or personal possesion of gold and silver. Needless to say, life was great, so most folks had huge families and spent much of their free time centered around their local churches.

Unfortunately, the European aristocrats and bankers didn't like this because they saw it as a threat to their control of America. So, in their devious minds, they created a way to divide America into two smaller and weaker nations where individuals could once again be controlled by the elite. The plan worked and by 1868, a central bank was created that once again monitored all currency in America. The corporation was created and was first used to replace the individual status with the controlling status of "U.S. Citizen". Lincoln knew this and fought it all they way, which is why he had to go so the corporate plan could prosper. The aristocrats and bankers succeded, albeit some resistance on the way, but nonetheless set the ground work for the corporate life much of us are volunterily enslaved with today. The good news is, the prosperity enjoyed by our ancestors prior to 1868 is still available today with just a little bit of education or inititive on anyone's part, even if it's only one individual at a time. That's a decision anyone can make.

I'd recommend to everyone that the watch Aaron Russo's documentary, "America: Freedom to Fascism." It isn't about lobbying, but it will open your eyes to how corrupt our elected leaders, almost all of them, are. Dennis Kucinich and Ron Paul would be two of the exceptions. They are true representatives if there ever was such a thing. http://freedomtofascism.org/

sounds like bribery to me!

Kerry

We have a corrupt healthcare and pharmaceutical system as evidenced in this article on lobbying. We also have a corrupt financial system based a on federal reserve that is not federal but private banking system. Our money comes out of thin air called debt. The last election showed abiased news media that reports the bad and liberal points of view. A vote for your candidate does not necessarilly count as one vote per person.

I WANT TO DO SOMETHING, BUT WHAT? iDEAS ARE NEEDED!

How can I change the systems that have gone awry?

I have worked in the healthcare system as a nurse for 37 years, have many nurses and doctors in the family, and a daughter working as a pharmaceutical rep. who were not able to make changes in the healthcare system.  

Just yesterday I read an article in our paper about Tom Daschle's really scary plan for "health" care--he plans to implement a Federal board that would decide which therapies would be allowed to be covered under insurance! He even admits that this would further alter the already weakened Dr/patient relationship. This is not the answer to our health crisis-this is furthering the problem created by insurance companies and managed care! Especially when the Big Pharm will no doubt have control over this board. I know I am preaching to the choir with this forum--however I did go on to Change.org and submitted my thoughts on this. i beleive this is the last day they are taking comments and/or voting. So make sure you go on there and do the same! And write to your congresspeople and newspapers etc. Even citizens who don't care one bit for natiral health care should be outraged by this as this board could decide which medications their Dr could prescribe even if another one is working for them.

Q:Whats the opposite of a Lobbyist?

A: Us

The talk here is sometimes like preaching to the quire. Take your thought to the top man, now!

citizensbriefingbook.change.gov

Lobbying is not the problem.  If lobbying was outlawed, big industries would still be able to influence politicians but the practice would go 'underground' and become invisible.

The problem is that Washington has too much money and power to begin with. Take that away, and there will be no incentive to spend millions on lobbying.

Don't forget that many foreign countries have lobbyists in Washington pushing for their agendas.

Just take a look how israel has taken over our goverment, no other country in the world receives the free foreign aid that israel receives, the bombs and fighter planes that are killing many of the arabs in the middleeast are manufactured in the USA......Also look at who Obama has appointed to the many jobs in Washington, they are jewish, and many of them have dual citizenship.