PUBLIC FORUM DEBATE
February 2010
Dr. John F. Schunk, Editor
“Resolved: In the United States, organized political lobbying does more harm than good.”
PRO
P01. ORGANIZED POLITICAL LOBBYING IS A BOOMING BUSINESS
P02. LOBBYING INCREASES POLITICAL CORRUPTION
P03. WEALTH BUYS POLITICAL FAVORS
P04. LURE OF LOBBYIST SALARIES HAS CORRUPTING INFLUENCE
P05. LOBBYING SUBVERTS THE DEMOCRATIC PROCESS
P06. LOBBYISTS MISREPRESENT THE FACTS
P07. LOBBYING PRODUCES UNSOUND POLICIES
P08. EARMARKS SUBVERT THE DEMOCRATIC PROCESS
P09. REGULATION DOESN’T DESTROY NEEDED EXPERTISE
P10. CURRENT REGULATION IS INADEQUATE
P11. PUBLIC INTEREST LOBBIES ARE SUBJECT TO ABUSE
P12. LOBBYING THREATENS CLIMATE CONTROL
P13. LOBBYING THREATENS HEALTH CARE
P14. LOBBYING DISTORTS U.S. FOREIGN POLICY
CON
C01. ORGANIZED POLITICAL LOBBYING IS INEVITABLE
C02. POLITICAL CORRUPTION IS EXAGGERATED
C03. INFLUENCE OF LOBBYISTS IS EXAGGERATED
C04. WEALTH DOESN’T BUY POLITICAL FAVORS
C05. CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTIONS AREN’T THE PROBLEM
C06. LOBBYING REPRESENTS ALL INTEREST GROUPS
C07. LOBBYING CONVEYS FIRST AMENDMENT VALUES
C08. LOBBYING IS VITAL TO DEMOCRACY
C09. ALLEGED HARMS OF EARMARKS ARE EXAGGERATED
C10. LOBBYING PROVIDES NEEDED EXPERTISE
C11. REGULATION IS EFFECTIVE
C12. LOBBYING SUPPORTS GOOD CAUSES
C13. PUBLIC INTEREST LOBBYING BENEFITS AMERICA
C14. LOBBYING HELPS HEALTHCARE/FINANCE/FOREIGN POLICY
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SK/P01. ORGANIZED POLITICAL LOBBYING IS A BOOMING BUSINESS
1. POLITICAL LOBBYING HAS HAD PHENOMENAL GROWTH
SK/P01.01) David Cohen [Civic Ventures and Council for a Livable World] & Larry Ottinger [President, Center for Lobbying in the Public Interest], CHRONICLE OF PHILANTHROPY, June 26, 2008, pNA, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. The growth in the business of lobbying is staggering. The number of companies with registered lobbyists grew by 58 percent in a recent six-year period, according to the Cato Institute. The total amount of spending on lobbying, says the Center for Responsive Politics, increased from more than $1.5-billion in 2000 to more than $2.8-billion in 2007. Those numbers do not even count when companies lobby government agencies for lucrative contracts, or wage "grassroots" lobbying actions, sometimes by forming sham nonprofit organizations that serve as industry front groups.
SK/P01.02) Bara Vaida, NATIONAL JOURNAL, October 30, 2009, pNA, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. Not only is business picking up on K Street, according to lobbying disclosure forms filed with Congress this month, but the number of registered lobbyists actively lobbying has risen 6 percent so far in 2009. "The intensity and the level of activity for us has been incredible this year," said Rich Gold, who heads Holland & Knight's public policy and regulation practice group. Holland & Knight's lobbying-fee income was $15.6 million for the first three quarters of 2009, up 41 percent from the same period in 2008. "We were averaging a new client a week during the third quarter."
SK/P01.03) Carrie Dann, CONGRESS DAILY AM, January 30, 2009, pNA, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. With daily news of massive job cuts at companies from Sprint to Starbucks, few American industries appear well-equipped to grow in the face of the global financial crisis. But a new study from the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics found lobbyists enjoyed unparalleled payments from special interests last year as ailing businesses ramped up efforts to obtain federal bailout money. The CRP analysis of disclosure reports shows that even as clouds were gathering on America's economic horizon, interest groups funneled $3.2 billion to K Street in 2008, an increase of 13.7 percent over 2007 expenditures.
SK/P01.04) Betsy Sundquist, SAINT PAUL LEGAL LEDGER CAPITOL REPORT, June 11, 2009, pNA, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. In the dismal financial year of 2008, when most other industries were getting familiar with the toilet, government lobbyists in Minnesota got flush. Last year, 64 local units of government in Minnesota spent $8.5 million lobbying the Legislature, an increase of 9.4 percent over the amount spent in 2007, according to a report released Wednesday by the state auditor's office.
2. GROWTH HAS CONTINUED DESPITE NEW REGULATIONS
SK/P01.05) Bara Vaida, NATIONAL JOURNAL, October 30, 2009, pNA, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. The number of registered lobbyists, meanwhile, is at 14,847 as of September 30, up from 13,926 the year before, according to the Senate Office of Public Records. That indicates that the profession remains popular, despite new restrictions that the Obama administration imposed on K Street.
SK/P01.06) Theo Francis et al., BUSINESS WEEK, August 10, 2009, p. 42, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. Despite the rhetoric of the past 18 months, few in the nation's capital really believed the Beltway lobbyist would disappear overnight just because a new President vowed to change business-as-usual in Washington and Congress heightened scrutiny. Yes, lobbyists now must heed stringent new disclosure rules; the gift-giving and golf outings have largely vanished. But the influence game rolls on in Obama's Washington.
3. PAYMENTS TO LOBBYISTS ARE AT RECORD LEVELS
SK/P01.07) Sally Schuff, FEEDSTUFFS, February 2, 2009, p. 2, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. There’s one industry marking high growth even as the world stumbles into a financial morass: lobby shops in Washington, D.C. The Center for Responsive Politics reported last week that Washington lobbyists were paid $3.2 billion--"more than any other year on record and a 13.7% increase from 2007." The center pointed out that special interests paid $17.4 million per day for lobbying for every day Congress was in session in 2008.
SK/P02. LOBBYING INCREASES POLITICAL CORRUPTION
1. LOBBYING HAS INCREASED POLITICAL SCANDALS
SK/P02.01) Danielle Knight & Dan Gilgoff, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, September 11, 2006, p. 52, Online, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. The spike in scandals parallels the rise in the number of registered lobbyists in Washington, which has more than tripled since 1996, from 10,800 to 32,900 in 2005. That's 61 lobbyists for every single member of Congress. The amount of money lobbyists spend in Washington ballooned from $1.4 billion in 1998 to $2.4 billion last year. A good chunk of that money goes to gifts and trips for lawmakers and their staff. More than 640 former or current members of Congress on both sides of the aisle have received about $21 million since 2000 in the form of travel around the world at the expense of private organizations.
2. EFFECTS OF ABRAMOFF SCANDAL STILL BEING FELT
SK/P02.02) Tony Silberfeld [RIMS government affairs liaison], RISK MANAGEMENT, March 2006, p. 44, Online, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. In January, super-lobbyist Jack Abramoff pleaded guilty to fraud, tax evasion and conspiracy to bribe public officials as part of a wide-ranging public corruption investigation that may implicate dozens of members of Congress. Abramoff took advantage of a system that welcomed corruption by showering lawmakers with golf trips to Scotland, tickets to sporting events and other illegal offerings in exchange for Congressional support for his clients' projects. Although partisans argue that this scandal is part and parcel of a Republican culture of corruption, the reality is that the tentacles of this scheme extend to the Democrats as well.
SK/P02.03) Peter H. Stone, NATIONAL JOURNAL, May 15, 2009, pNA, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. Since December, two lobbyists, two former Hill aides, and one former administration official linked to Abramoff have been convicted on charges related to the scandal. Overall, the Justice Department-led investigation into the network of lobbyists, lawmakers, Hill staffers, and Bush administration officials whom Abramoff and his associates cultivated for political favors through campaign donations and gifts of meals, tickets to sports events, and lavish golf junkets has notched 18 criminal convictions.
SK/P02.04) Peter H. Stone, NATIONAL JOURNAL, May 15, 2009, pNA, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. As the probes continue, the fallout from the Abramoff scandal is still roiling the lobbying profession. In 2007, Congress enacted new curbs on lawmakers' ability to take the kinds of junkets that Abramoff's clients underwrote, and it ended lobbyists' longtime practice of buying food and drinks for members. More recently, the Obama administration has cited the Abramoff scandal as part of the justification for instituting strict new lobbying rules.
3. WASHINGTON IS SATURATED WITH CLIMATE OF CORRUPTION
SK/P02.05) Norman Ormstein [American Enterprise Institute], CURRENT, March-April 2009, p. 17, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. So Damn Much Money is the title of Bob Kaiser's penetrating book on the explosion of lobbying and corruption in Washington over the past quarter century. Kaiser is right, and so is Barack Obama in his attempt to attenuate the corrosive links between lobbying and government--even with the hiccup created by Tom Daschle's withdrawal.
SK/P02.06) Dan DiSalvo [Asst. Professor of Political Science, City College of New York], COMMENTARY, February 2009, p. 54, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. A sage politician by the name of Jesse Unruh once observed that "money is the mother's milk of politics." Robert G. Kaiser believes the nation's capital is drowning in it. His book, So Damn Much Money: the Triumph of Lobbying and the Corrosion of American Government, is an account of how Washington politics has changed since the 1970's as seen through the lens of one of the largest and most successful lobbying firms, Cassidy & Associates. It is not, he says, "a pretty tale."
SK/P02.07) Editorial, MULTINATIONAL MONITOR, January-February 2006, p. 6, Online, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. There is now in Washington a culture of corruption. More serious than wrongdoing that crosses the line into illegality, are the rules--but especially the norms--that treat what are plainly corrupting behaviors as acceptable and routine.
SK/P03. WEALTH BUYS POLITICAL FAVORS
1. CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTIONS ACHIEVE ENORMOUS INFLUENCE
SK/P03.01) Charles Peters [founding editor], WASHINGTON MONTHLY, November-December 2009, p. 8, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. The power of lobbyists over Congress has grown dramatically during my forty-eight years in Washington. What's happened is, the reforms made during the Kennedy-Johnson administration and by Democratic Congresses in the early years of the Nixon administration frightened the nation's big shots. In the 1970s, they moved their trade associations to Washington, hired lobbyists, and brought about an explosion of new office buildings on the K Street-Connecticut Avenue axis. The number of outright lobbyists and the number of lawyers, who are mainly lobbyists, has also exploded. And as we all now know, they learned a great secret--that they could do indirectly through campaign contributions what they could not do with outright direct payments to officials.
SK/P03.02) Charles Peters [founding editor], WASHINGTON MONTHLY, November-December 2009, p. 8, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. Officials who would never dream of accepting an outright bribe will gratefully accept campaign contributions and, consciously or unconsciously, be influenced by the access provided to those who do the contributing or arrange it. This, I fear--along with the manipulation of congressional districts to provide safe seats, which has left the Republican Party prisoner to its deranged extreme right wing--accounts for much of the tough going reform has faced this year.
SK/P03.03) Sally Schuff, FEEDSTUFFS, February 2, 2009, p. 2, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. The entire listing of lobbying costs is online at www.opensecrets.org. It points to the old charge: "The best government money can buy."
2. LEGISLATORS BECOME DEPENDENT ON LOBBYIST CONTRIBUTIONS
SK/P03.04) Dan DiSalvo [Asst. Professor of Political Science, City College of New York], COMMENTARY, February 2009, p. 54, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. According to Kaiser, a veteran reporter and editor at the Washington Post, excess money and a "new class" of lobbyists have together caused "ethical rot in the nation's capital" and are the source of a litany of government's failings. The need to raise vast sums of campaign contributions dissuades talented citizens from running for office, forces those who do to avoid discussing real problems on the stump, and diverts their attention from such problems once elected.
SK/P03.05) Dan DiSalvo [Asst. Professor of Political Science, City College of New York], COMMENTARY, February 2009, p. 54, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. In Kaiser's telling, five things account for the success of Cassidy & Associates. First, members of Congress are always eager to "bring home the bacon" to please the voters that elect them. Second, legislators became dependent on lobbyists to help them raise campaign cash. Third, the size of the earmarks, at least initially, was quite large, which meant that clients were willing to pay big retainer fees.
3. MONEY DISTORTS LEGISLATORS’ VALUES
SK/P03.06) Norman Ormstein [American Enterprise Institute], CURRENT, March-April 2009, p. 17, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. Living in a prosperous, vibrant city is nice. But the corrupting influence of all that money is palpable. For senior members of Congress, it is not easy to see one's peers--much less one's former employees--leave the Hill and make so much more money. The seemingly inexplicable petty corruption of powerhouses like Dan Rostenkowski and Ted Stevens can be explained, I believe, by their belief that they were making such immense sacrifices to stay in public service that a few additional perks were well-deserved--and still left them far poorer than their lobbyist friends. And for the first time, we have young people who enter public service, not out of idealism or even a thirst for power, but out of a desire to make money.
4. LOBBYISTS’ CLIENTS RECEIVE TAX BREAKS & SPECIAL TREATMENT
SK/P03.07) Christopher Farrell, BUSINESS WEEK, June 23, 2008, p. 22, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. Today's Presidential candidates try to distance themselves from corporate lobbyists. But investors might want to give them a big hug, say professors Hui Chen (University of Colorado), David Parsley (Vanderbilt), and Ya-Wen Yang (University of Miami). Focusing on direct lobbying by from publicly traded companies from 1998 to 2005 (when such expenditures totaled about $560 million), they created two stock portfolios: one with companies that lobbied actively, one with those that didn't. Over three years, the average annual return for intensely active companies was about 8% higher than for non-lobbying firms. Reasons? Hui cites possible profit boosts from tax breaks or federal contracts.
SK/P03.08) THE PROGRESSIVE, July 2009, p. 11, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. Senator Jay Rockefeller sent a fundraising letter on behalf of the Rockefeller Neurosciences Institute to Consol Energy, a company that operates coal mines in his home state of West Virginia. Consol sent $25,000, reports USA Today. Thomas Hoffman, Consol's senior vice president, said, "It would be foolish to think we don't take note of the fact when a member of Congress says, 'Hey, I think this is something you ought to support.'"