By Lou Dobbs
Lou Dobbs Tonight
August 11, 2005


'Corporate supremacist' lobbyists control Congress, passing corporate friendly laws at your expense.

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 rent 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 Hill.

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.

Corporations, entire industries and other special interest groups
spent a record $2.14 billion on lobbying members of Congress and 220
other federal agencies last year, according to Political MoneyLine,
a nonpartisan research service that tracks campaign contributions.
That figure represents a 7 percent increase over 2003 and an
astonishing 34 percent jump from the amount of money spent on lobbying in 2001.

Interestingly, while many major news stories tend to focus on
campaign finance reform, twice as much money has been spent on
lobbying Congress than on federal elections since 1998. All told,
corporations and special interests have spent more than $12 billion
on lobbying efforts over that time, according to the Center for Public Integrity


Congressmen Rahm Emanuel of Illinois and Marty Meehan of
Massachusetts have introduced legislation that would, among other
things, strengthen lobbying disclosure requirements, slow the
"revolving door" between public service and lobbying and make it
easier for Americans to learn about who is lobbying members of
Congress. Senator Russ Feingold of Wisconsin has introduced a
similar version in the Senate.

But Congresssman Emanuel says he thinks the leaders of Congress
aren't interested in changing the way it operates, or even the way
lobbyists operate. "When the Speaker's gavel comes down, it's
intended to open the People's House, and lately it's looking like
the Auction House," says Congressman Emanuel, "Whether it's an
energy bill that gives more $8 billion to the oil and gas interests
while oil's at $64 a barrel, whether it's a corporate tax bill
solving a $5 billion problem with a $150 billion solution, whether
it's a pharmaceutical, prescription drug bill where the industry
gave $132 million and walked away with $135 billion in additional profits."

The corporate lobby has become more effective recently because it's
hiring more experienced players, in effect creating a "revolving
door" between Capitol Hill and K Street. In fact, 43 percent of the
eligible Congressional members who departed government during that
time have become lobbyists, while half of all eligible departing
Senators have become lobbyists. Nearly 250 former members of
Congress and federal agency chiefs have become lobbyists since 1998,
while more than 2,200 former federal employees have registered as federal lobbyists.

The striking rise in money spent on lobbying also increases the
chances for abuse. Lobbyists are required to report who pays them
and how much they're paid, but nearly 85 percent of the top 250
lobbying firms have failed to file one or more required forms,
according to the Center for Public Integrity. The biggest abuses,
however, stem from lobbyists' paying for politicians' dinners,
trips, golf outings and more. Members of Congress over the past five
years have received more than $18 million to travel the world at the
expense of private organizations, PoliticalMoneyLine reports. Those
expenses include 6,242 trips for 628 lawmakers from both political parties.

Alex Knott, LobbyWatch project manager at the Center for Public
Integrity, calls this process buying a consensus. "I think where a
lot of people find problems is that a special interest...has a
greater ability to influence members of Congress and agencies than
average American citizens do," he says. "They will send them on
these huge golf trips and these expensive dinners, and they will
have their ear right before they go and vote because they will catch
them in the hallways just before a major vote happens. And this
makes it almost impossible for the individual's voice to penetrate
the loud buzz that comes from lobbyists."

Americans also want to see changes in Washington: More than four in
five Americans believe it would be a "very serious" or "moderately
serious" ethical breach if their member of Congress took a trip paid
for by a lobbyist, according to a recent USA/Today/CNN/Gallup poll.
Lobbyists aren't the only ones to blame for the current
business-first environment in Washington, but they're enabling those
corporate interests to cozy up to our nation's elected officials. We
must take action to return Congress to the business of the American
citizenry, not the business of the corporate supremacists.