Lobbying Against America

[alfredo]

Dobbs slices and dices. Not only must we retake congress, we must reform congress.

http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/08/11/lobby.america/index.html

Lobbying against America

By Lou Dobbs

Friday, August 12, 2005; Posted: 10:46 a.m. EDT (14:46 GMT)

(CNN) -- There's no denying both political parties in Congress are now owned lock, stock and barrel by corporate interests. Our nation's elected officials in Washington have formed a partnership with the corporate supremacists and special interest groups in an effort to drive profits to the bottom line of U.S. multinationals at the expense of hard-working Americans.


Congress over the past few months has all-too-willingly approved corporate-friendly -- and often corporate-written -- transportation and energy bills, as well as so-called bankruptcy reform that further rents the middle class' social safety net. And not surprisingly, there's a serious correlation between the dramatic increase in money spent by special interest groups on lobbying and corporate America's taking over the deed to Capitol

More at link

[mcscajun]

1. Another excerpt

Let's be clear about this: Calling these greedy people "lobbyists" simply because they convene in the hallowed lobbies of Washington is akin to calling parasites "bodyists" or viruses "blood-streamers." What they're really doing is selling out American workers and hastening the decline in our nation's standard of living and quality of life.

That's calling things by their real names.

[KC21304]

2. I missed this. Good for Dobbs. But he seems

to miss the connection between lobbying and campaign finance reform. If we had public financing of campaigns the politicans wouldn't have to worry about pleasing the corporate interests. They would not have to worry about trading their votes for campaign cash. Very simple rules - you accept even one golf ball from lobbyists and not one dime of public money.

[alfredo]

3. In a way he did. Campaign reform will come between

politicians and the money and power they desire.