The U.S. Congress
 
 
On June 22, 2005 the Washington Post reported that there were 34,750 registered lobbyists in Washington D.C. There are 535 members of congress. This makes the ratio of lobbyists to members of Congress 65 to 1. You can read this article by going to http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/21/AR2005062101632.html . This article is disturbing to say the least. Members of the House of Representatives must campaign for re-election every two years. (Senate terms are for six years). Campaign fund raising becomes all consuming in terms of time and energy . 435 Members of the House are scurrying about to capture as much money as possible. This process is on going throughout the two year term. Many accuse house members of spending more time and effort raising money than addressing the bills that come before the House for consideration. Many members vote without even reading the bills before voting on them. They are often distracted by other matters and in some cases, the “packaging” of a bill is so complex that it is almost impossible to understand. They rely on the advice of others; or are often pressured to vote yes or no based upon party affiliation or their votes have been “bought” by the lobbyists and political action committees. The pressure on members of Congress to do the bidding of the corporations and special interest groups is intense and ever present. They need money to campaign for re-election and the special interests are the mother lode. The process stinks. It leads to bad legislation and corruption. The last thing on the minds of the Congress are the needs of their constituents. While researching this subject, I found the website of PublicCitizen.Org http://www.citizen.org/ . This is another good source of information about what is happening in politics today. Go to their “Hall of Shame” website at http://www.cleanupwashington.org/hos/ . This site lists the shady dealings of various members (and ex members) of Congress. There are more Republicans than Democrats listed here. I am not picking on the Republicans. I think that the reason that more Republicans are in the HALL of SHAME is that they were the majority party in both the House and the Senate for the first six (6) years of the Bush administration and as such had greater opportunities to do the wrong thing. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/21/AR2005062101632.htmlhttp://www.citizen.orghttp://www.cleanupwashington.org/hos/shapeimage_1_link_0shapeimage_1_link_1shapeimage_1_link_2
It’s 10 PM.  Do you know where your ex congressman is?
Tuesday, April 8, 2008
The Score / Lobbyists 34,750 - Congress 535