11/30/2005

Lobbying Should Be Regulated

"Philip Morris is at it again, competing hard to be a leading donor of unregulated soft money for the third election in a row. In 1998, the tobacco giant deployed a Washington, DC lobbying force that outnumbered the US Senate, and registered at least 208 lobbyists in 44 states in 1999. Philip Morris spends thousands of dollars each year on gifts to state legislators and their staff members, including tickets to the Alvin Ailey Dance Company, basketball games and a Rolling Stones concert." Source (Lobbying).

This article about a well known tabacco company made me a little mad. Lobbying is when a company pays money to have lobby members go to senate and push their bills or opinions through. It basically means that all it takes to have congress on your side is money. I think that a company like Philip Morris uses this lobbying to their advantage. Because of their industry, without their money being paid out, and without lobbying, they would have a lot more trouble from the government. I think that the amount of money allowed in lobbying should be regulated. And the power that a coporation has in over powering the governement should be stopped. It is obvious why Philip Morris donates, gives gifts, and made sure to outnumber the US Senate with lobbyists. Its nothing more than those with money get their way and those without don't.

3 comments:

Dr. Tufte said...

-1 on Liz's post for grammatical errors.

The problem isn't lobbying. Anyone should be allowed to pay someone to lobby on their behalf.

The problem is that legislative actions that benefit groups that lobby are not deemed unconstitutional enough. If this sort of thing didn't go through, there wouldn't be any need to lobby.

Jordan said...

Dr. Tufte said:

"The problem is that legislative actions that benefit groups that lobby are not deemed unconstitutional enough. If this sort of thing didn't go through, there wouldn't be any need to lobby."

I couldn't agree more. There's a serious problem when laws get made based on who bugs the legislators most about their opinion.

Dr. Tufte said...

To reiterate, I don't think the problem is the laws or the creation of them, it is the failure to approach legislation like writing a paper: we don't draft, we don't revise, and we don't recognize enough that the voters are the editors.