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Lobbyists Versus Obama Is Equivalent To Flies Versus Ointment
Shall we all shed a tear for the out of work lobbyists on Capitol Hill who’ve found themselves standing in the unemployment line with MOI (yep — part French — proud, unapologetic and refusing to SURRENDER any of the aforementioned under ANY circumstance) ever since President B.H.O. has assumed control of the Oval Office? Or shall we get an “AMEN!”?
From The Hill:
Study: Lobbyists are quitting at record pace
By Eric ZimmermannLobbyists are quitting the business at a record pace, according to a study released Monday.
Over 1,400 lobbyists “deregistered” with Congress in the second quarter of 2009, according to a study conducted jointly by the Center for Responsive Politics (CRP) and OMB Watch.
Typically, only a few hundred lobbyists quit each quarter.
The giant spike in resignations came just after the Obama administration instituted strict new rules on lobbyist activity. …
No more “Jack Abramoff’s” allowed, says the president. Or, at least, let’s keep them to a mimimum, eh?
But hey, let’s all just go ahead and turn this whole thing into a “Left” versus “Right” thing, shall we? Please — SOMEBODY dig up SOMETHING to prove there’s still some Left-Wing “Abramoff” type out there who’s still certified to lobby so we can all point to the president and accuse him of being “The Antichrist” or a “Marxist” or something even more imaginative, if possible. Never mind the fact the “Right” has been screaming and screaming (along with the “Left”) to reduce the lobbyist “footprint” in our “gub’mint” for decades — there’s GOT to be some way we can demonize this less-than-perfect president (first one to admit it) over this triumph failure, isn’t there?
Credit where credit’s due, please. Or not. Have fun either way. Choice is yours.
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Hell, they HAD to quit. Either they got hired by the former junior senator from IL, or the outfits they worked for got taken over by him.
LMFAO, Joe!!! I KNEW I could count on you, bro
@The GTL™, (doffs hat and bows) Your servant, sir.
Less lobbyists are better. No doubt.
The problem is that it seems to me that their are still plenty of lobbyists floating around and that all of them are basically in the Dems back pocket.
If this was not true…there would be substantial TORT reform in the health care bill. EVERYONE…with a heart beat knows its one of the main factors drving up health care costs….IF NOT THE MAIN FACTOR.
Unions….Lord I wished I could remember the article I read on the Automakers meeting in which the lobbyists for the UAW was as thick as fly paper. Was an interesting article and was written by the UAW if I remember right.
Lobbyists are still present….they just arent representing GOP interests right now…they are representing the democratic interests.
Is Obama the antichrist….not hardly…he doesnt have enough brains for the job. I’m fully convinced that the antichrist could lie to us without a teleprompter.
Hey GTL, “lobbyists” arent needed anymore with King Obama. They use Czars…
@CLD, LMFAO Chris!!! Actually, I’m laughing at several of the other comments, too. I just don’t want to put out about 5 other “LOLs”…
They had to unregister so they can work for the gubment
I see you gave the antichrist Obama The Indonesian a black hat, GTL. Good call!
Well…maybe not all of the lobbyists “K Street to Rake in Healthcare Cash”.
The problem is that when you blanket demonize with an all encompassing label, you pull in a lot of people. And there are a number of advocacy organizations out there that are really feeling the economic pinch around here. During the summer months, I’m an editor who does freelance work with various agencies. This past summer I had 0 editing gigs. And that’s really hurt the budget.
While some may be problematic, others are just trying to help out their industry…or pet project. I know one environmental education group that’s had to lay off a number of people…or at the very least cut their hours back.
@Kat, I’m no lobbying expert, but what you said sounds quite plausable. My concept of a lobbist is someone who buys face time or ear time with congresspeople either through gifts or just annoying persistance. The idea that a tanking economy could cause a reduction in lobbists sounds interesting. On the other hand, in line with how many lobbists does it take to change a light bulb? How many lobbists does it take to write a check? Again, I really don’t know the lobbying game so I could be way off on this, but if the President of the United States Obama ran off many little organizations so the big power money has less interference in the important business of buying votes then: Good job Mr. President!
@Mike 300 Spartans,
Well…when you look at it, a lobbyist is someone who gets paid to knock on the doors of the congresscritters so that you, a member of that organization (related to one or many of your pet causes from veterans rights to education to industry), don’t necessarily have to. The lobbyist’s job is to promote whatever cause that is through various advocacy stratetgies–including getting face time with the legislators. These organizations hire a lot of people including writers, web designers, and editors in order to develop products that will help “sell” the cause.
In the case of my friend’s organization, environmental education is a big thing in addition to the advocacy factor. The organization has an entire section dedicated to developing classes for kids to help promote learning about birds, trees, and conservation. Because the money is drying up–donations are down, grants are scarce, and membership pockets are tight, they’ve had to let go a large part of their staff and cut several planned programs.
When people think lobbyist, they think about Pharma and Big Oil…and the like. What they forget is that there are a lot of smaller groups who do play by the rules. And unfortunately, during the campaign last year, the Team O labeled a whole lot of groups including VoteVet as “inside the Beltway lobbyists.” There was a sense that if you didn’t get with the plan, you’d be given a very large cold shoulder.
@Kat,
“The lobbyist’s job is to promote whatever cause that is through various advocacy stratetgies–including getting face time with the legislators.” I ask the following question with no agenda or slant. If your job wasn’t to get talk time with white house or congress, would there be any reason to register as a lobbyist? Anybody can do web design and such without registering can’t they? I get the idea of a lot of small groups being cut, and my first remark was partly trying to be snarky that a cut in the number of lobbyists wouldn’t necessarily improve the problem with lobbyists, it may actually increase the problem as the well funded manipulators now have less competition from the good cause shoe-string budget organizations. I can’t emphasis enought that I’m throwing out ideas more as questions than someone who has a clue what actually happens. Thanks for your expounding on the picture from a small group perspective.
@Mike 300 Spartans,
I got the snark
And honestly I’m more amused now that I would’ve been over the summer when my budget hit $20 by the time my first Sept. paycheck came around. Actually, since I wound up borrowing a bit from my brother, I was in the negatives…and no one was hiring freelancers. Indeed, groups like AARP were letting people go.
The cut doesn’t suggest the beginning of the end for lobbyists. So long as a coalition of people (teachers, farmers, oil drillers, bakers, beer and spirits makers, doctors, lawyers, gun owners, union workers, recording label companies, and so on) get together and hire someone to advocate for their pet cause…there will be associations and lobbyists.
To answer your question…As a writer and editor working freelance for an advocacy group/association/organization, I do not have to register as a lobbyist. I’m not one…nor is my friend in the education department. However, there are other sections of the organization that do have to register because they are the ones wandering the Hill advocating for whatever group it is…they are lobbying for (insert your interest group here).