Taxing & Spending: Lobbyists Bring It Home for Special Interests, Not You

You'll remember the old Karl Marx slogan—"from each according to his ability, to each according to his need."

In the last 25 years, Washington has come to embrace this idea, but with one important change: "from each according to his ability, to each according to the power of his lobbyist."

A feeding frenzy has broken out in DC, as one tiny industry of policy wonks—lobbyists—have become power brokers in a system that makes some rich, while making our nation broke.

Lobbyists in action

The following two studies illustrate the power and effect of lobbyists on our system:

University of Kansas researchers recently showed that the return on investment from lobbying to change the American Jobs Creation Act of 2004 was a whopping 22,000%; and
political scientists in California recently showed* that for every $1 large firms spend in lobbying, they reduce their tax costs by between $6 and $20.

It pays to have lobbyists.

Ending lobbyists' grip

Lobbyists have this power to sell policy to this highest bidder because they have become the key source of campaign funds for Members of Congress. They will continue to have this power so long as we make Congressmen dependent upon them.

One simple idea would radically change all this. Give every voter a $50 democracy voucher to spend on whatever candidate he or she wishes. And make it so candidates can only get these vouchers if they limit themselves to small dollar contributions.

Special interest money = special interest Congress.

Our money = Our Congress.

* Source: Lobbying and Taxes by Brian Kelleher Richter, et al. Click to download.