When it Comes to Lobbying, One Group Stands Out
Summary: During this election year, one aspect of the political spectrum will remain a constant: money and lobbying. During April and June of 2015, the top three lobbyist groups; the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, American Medical Association and Boeing, spent a record 14.4 million dollars on Capitol Hill trying to sway the minds of the nation’s lawmakers. However, the biggest spenders involved business corporations. They spent an estimated 86.6 million dollars in the three month quarter alone, according to MapLight. Big business spreading money into every crack and crevasse it can find is nothing new. "Lee Drutman, a senior fellow at centrist think-tank the New America Foundation, notes that 95 of the top 100 groups that spend money on lobbying represent business. Such organizations spend $34 for every dollar spent by labor unions, another interest group known for bending lawmakers' ears.” A lot of issues are being heard from lawmakers and politicians from these interest groups rather than from the consent of constituents. "Despite his organization's mission of shining a light on how money shapes politics, Daniel Newman, co-founder and president of MapLight, said that fixating on the exact dollar figures spent on lobbying can obscure the broader picture. For one, quarterly lobbying expenditures fail to capture the full extent of corporate influence. Companies like Google also flex their muscles by running their own PACs, funding think tanks and taking other measures to affect public policy.”
Class Connections: We have discussed lobbying and interest groups as of late in our class and that is the main focus of this article. It talks about how interest groups influence lawmakers and how groups lobby to get there information spread throughout Washington. We have talked about interest groups and lobbying and how they can be beneficial, but also how they can promote corruption and cause problems in politics.
My Beliefs: I personally believe that interest groups and lobbyists take away from America’s system of freedom and Democracy. When corporations and big businesses are able to influence national lawmakers with money and information, I think it can lead to misrepresenting the people that these politicians should be representing. Corporations and special interests shouldn’t have a say in how laws are passed and carried out. I do believe, however, that groups can support politicians, if and only if they are giving reliable information, without money and incentives, to aid these higher ups in making informed and good decisions. This should be done only because of the enormous amount of laws and issues that theseCongressmen and women must vote on each year.
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