Lobbyists Have Hijacked Our Government
The $4B Industry You Never Heard Of
In 2022, registered lobbyists working at the federal level shelled out $4.1B in various payouts to politicians and political action committees (PACs). This shows that lobbying must work. A minimum of 13,784 organizations in 2022 sent a total of 12,609 lobbyists to Washington, D.C., to lobby 100 Senators and 435 Representatives plus 6 Delegates. That’s a ratio of over 23 lobbyists per Congressperson. And that means all lobbyists in total paid out $7,578,558 per person in Congress. (This payout is from “registered” lobbyists; the actual payout may be substantially higher—read on.)
Wonder how the porkapalooza $1.7T omnibus (“kitchen sink”) bill passed late in 2023? Well, 1,393 organizations sent lobbyists to push it through—and what do you want to bet those were the organization who wanted an extra big slice of the pie? Whenever Congress is giving out money, lobbyists are there trying to direct the flow of greenbacks.
If you ever wonder why we don’t get single-item bills, it’s lobbyists. If there was only one topic per bill, you wouldn’t get that many lobbyists to swarm on Congress. But if you create a 2,000 page bill with thousands of people getting payoffs, lobbying companies unleash the hounds of hell (lobbyists) on the Congress. Some people said J6 was an invasion of Congress; imagine 12,609 lobbyists descending on the House and the Senate to scoop up votes for cash, with resources of over $7M per Congressperson. Now that’s a dangerous invasion.
Ever wonder who writes those super-long 2,000 page bills that no one reads until it’s too late? Sometimes it’s lobbyists. After all, we wouldn’t want Congresspeople to work too hard actually doing their jobs. The lobbyists swoop in, make some payoffs, and then drop off the text they want inserted into various bills.
Lobbying is by far one of the most lucrative businesses on earth. For every $1 that a company spends on lobbyists, they get $760 back from the government in payoffs from legislation and policies and other types of rebates rebates. No other industry offers a 76,000% return on investment!
Who are these lobbyists? Well, you might be surprised. According to OpenSecrets.com data for 2022, the companies or associations that spend the most on lobbying are the National Association of Realtors, the US Chamber of Commerce, PhRMA (Big Pharma), American Hospital Association, Blue Cross/Blue Shield, Amazon, the American Medical Association, Business Roundtable, American Chemistry Council, and Meta, formerly known as Facebook.
Wait a minute, where’s the National Rifle Association? Where are the online gambling companies? The cannabis purveyors? Not in the top 10, not even close!
When you look at lobbying efforts by industry, Big Pharma tops the list by far, then electronics, insurance, investment, real estate, business, electricity, oil and gas, hospital and nursing homes, and health services. You can see how our disease-promoting culture is heavily subsidized by lobbyist money.
And lobbyists sometimes work against bills they don’t like. Big Pharma had advocates fighting to ditch the Inflation Reduction Act since it was going to lower drug prices. Lobbyists care about their own causes and interests; they are not interested in promoting things that might be good for the country and its citizens. In fact, citizens are all but irrelevant when it comes to lobbying.
Most Americans are not aware of the very big business of lobbying and that’s because Congresspeople never raise a stink about it, even when lobbyists help to defeat legislation they want passed. The reason is that lobbyists are the grease in the government machine. Every person in Congress wants a little taste of what the lobbyists have to offer and most of them manage to forge profitable relationships with at least some of the lobbyists.
Lobbyists donate to political campaigns either to candidates directly or to their preferred PACs. Sometimes lobbyists get their well-heeled compatriots to bundle contributions, so that one lobbyist can come to a Congressperson bearing gifts from many like-minded sources. As the government is quick to point out, these are not bribes. They are rather payments to a politicians in return for voting a certain way. Wait, isn’t that a bribe? The loophole is that lobbyists give the money based on verbal promises that are never solidified in writing and, technically, the Congressperson could accept a donation and not do as he or she is told. However, I bet that kind of thing rarely happens, since if you burn a lobbyist, it is doubtful that lobbyist or his friends will throw more money at you.
Many lobbyists get paid handsomely and they work for hilariously named “nonprofits,” who are generously funded to throw money at Congress. No wonder Congress has no interest in the citizens of this country. We aren’t in a position to wine them, dine them, and slip $100 grand into their campaign accounts.
Lobbying is sometimes carried out by specialized firms whose service is lobbying which they sometimes call political consulting. In other words, if your industry wants to lobby Congress, you can hire a company who can send specialized lobbyists to Congress on your behalf. Lobbying companies conduct very lucrative work, since they take about 10% off the top. For every million the lobbyist wants to dump on Congresspeople, the lobbying firm will pocket approximately $100,000 and the rest is funneled into Congressional coffers. (These numbers are hypothetical; in reality, an old time saloon in the Wild West was more regulated than lobbying is today.) As an example, the prestigious lobbying company of Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck raked in $61M in 2022. Nice work if you can get it.
Even more discouraging, there is a revolving door between Congress and the lobbying business. In 2022, 13 former members of Congress registered for the first time to be lobbyists. You can’t do both jobs at once, but you can do them sequentially. Lobbyists can jump into politics and Congresspeople can become lobbyists. The latter is more common since the money is better and the work is easier. But lobbyists can also go to work for the executive branch and they often work in the same area as they once lobbied, only now they make the policies rather than persuade the votes. Wonder why stock and finance regulations favor the uber-wealthy? The uber-wealthy have lobbyists, and they have jobs making policy. Wonder why TikTok seems to have run afoul of Congress? Word is that the Chinese government did not know how to play the lobbying game.
Then there is also what’s known as “stealth lobbying,” which occurs when a person quits Congress and takes up lobbying but never registers as an official lobbyist. There are enough loopholes to allow the cagier denizens of the Capitol to fly under the radar. One of the biggest loopholes is that a person does not have to register as a lobbyist if that person lobbies less than 20% of the time for one single client. A stealth lobbyist can simply collect multiple clients and lobby for 10 groups rather than one—and skip registration without violating the law. Some stealth lobbyists skirt the registration process by claiming to offer “strategic advice” or other services rather than lobbying. So a person can visit Senators, contribute to their campaigns, and discuss politics with them and not be a lobbyist—but it is hard to see the difference between a strategic advisor’s checkbook and a lobbyist’s checkbook. Moreover, any member of Congress can quit and start a lobbying company with no restrictions, if they do not directly lobby themselves.
Here is a little more inside baseball. Let’s say a lobbying firm has its eye on a particular Congressman, thinking he’d make a great lobbyist to serve their cause. Or maybe they need his vote and think he’d make a decent lobbyist. The lobbying firm will go to him, in confidence of course, and promise $1M as a sign-on bonus if he quits to become a lobbyist. They will also promise a big salary and maybe some other benefits. But they often make this promise for some time in the future—say, “come and work for us at the end of your term, and we’ll get you a $1M bonus.” This kind of talk is confidential and need never be disclosed; it’s a private firm or agent talking about potential employment to a job candidate. Nothing is in writing. However, once they shake on that future sign-on bonus, the lobbyist-in-waiting is now loyal and devoted to his future employers. These future lobbyists vote as they are told.
Even apart from a sign-on bonus, there is plenty of moolah in lobbying. When a Congressperson becomes a lobbyist, his or her salary can go up 1000% or more. That means the same guy who once earned $174,000 a year as a Senator with his name on the door can now start at $1.9M a year as a lobbyist prowling the halls of the Capitol. Some lobbyists do better than that; Big Pharma lobbyists can earn eight figures. That’s a very tempting raise for a public servant, and all it takes is a period of demonstrated loyalty to the cause, evidenced by obedient voting.
The gravy train does not end there! Some lobbyists and even stealth lobbyists supplement their income by consulting with industry and public speaking. For example, a big pharmaceutical company may pay a lobbyist big money to hold seminars or one-on-one sessions with Congresspeople to learn about a new drug.
You do not even have to be a successful Congressperson to get a piece of the pie. In some cases, politicians who get voted out of office may still be recruited by lobbying firms or they can freelance as unregistered lobbyists by working as a consultant for multiple companies. Once you set foot in the hallowed halls of the Capitol, you can cry out like Scarlett O’Hara, “As God is my witness, I’ll never be hungry again!”
Naturally, lobbyists and Congresspeople think lobbying is a swell idea but they never talk about it. They’ll talk about all kinds of people and things that are an “existential threat to our democracy,” but lobbying is a topic they never mention. It’s like they have lobbying amnesia when reciting their daily list of grievances to the press or on social media. Congress tells us the problem is climate change or immigration or inflation or healthcare or keeping Trump out of office—but the problem of lobbying is never addressed. It’s like a herd of elephants in the room.
Lobbying is not only legal, it’s enshrined in the First Amendment. The Constitution explicitly states that citizens can petition the government for “redress of grievances.” This is where the whole sordid lobbying industry comes from, although individuals are no longer petitioning for redress of grievances; instead, big companies and special interests are slipping money to Congress to get their bills passed or rejected.
Democracy to the highest bidder.
Under the Lobbying Disclosure Act of 1995, lobbyists must register to avoid confusing them with bribers, swindlers, con-men, and other crooks. Many lobbying activities have to be officially disclosed, and a lot are kept secret. Most voters are barely aware of the lobbying industry. And no lobbyist is going to lobby against the goose that laid the golden egg. For as much money and perks as lobbyists lavish on their pet Congresspeople, they get more than that in return. Congress loves lobbyists, and lobbyists know how to work Congress. It’s the American people who are left out of the deal. We’re being hurt.
Lobbyists have all of the money, so normal citizens with normal grievances are shut out of the conversation. We are allowed to petition Congress, sure, but we are competing for the attention of our representatives against people who have wheelbarrows full of cash. I can’t give Congress funds to get my problems addressed, so they ignore my phone calls. (Try calling Congress some time, you’ll see how interested they are in your grievances… Here’s the phone directory for the House of Representatives, including staff.)
A true lobbyist must have more than one person to target, I mean influence, but lobbyists do not work with everybody. They are often laser focused on specific people. Since some of the lobbyists are registered, you can get a list of them, but we wouldn’t necessarily recognize their names. Here is a list of the main lobbyists and lobbying companies—it’s astonishing. And by astonishing, I mean sickening.
Lobbyists are supposed to be registered, so there is at least the fiction that we can keep track of them. However, you can skirt the registration under some loopholes. If you lobby no more than 4 days in 3 months, you don’t have to register at all. If you’re a self-employed lobbyist you don’t have to register. If you don’t take pay, such as if you’re an intern, you don’t have to register. A person who is an employee of some company (such as a green energy company) but lobbies as part of his or her job does not have to register. There are more of these, but you get the picture.
What do lobbyists do besides throw money around and direct voting on legislation? They create infographics, charts, diagrams, and white papers for Congress, federal officials, and even the public. They sometimes develop policies that they share. JFK often used lobbyists for this type of work since he said they brought expertise and policy that made complicated issues easier for Congress to tackle.
Lobbyists also can explain how various laws or policies might impact specific groups or industries. For instance, considerations about everything from school choice to the fishing industry to electric vehicles will have specific and profound ramifications for certain groups—lobbyists are often well versed in what these groups need and want. They are willing to talk about this to Congresspeople and if a representative or Senator wants to bring this up on the floor to the other Congresspeople, the lobbyist is often ready with illustrations, art, and encouragement.
The national average salary for a lobbyist is $81,428 a year but highly effective lobbyists can make much more. Unlike Congress, lobbying knows no salary caps. A top lobbyist is one who has expertise in a specific field, solid communication skills, an influencer-type personality, professional flexibility, extensive connections with key Congresspeople, and experience at exchanging dollars for votes. Note that “key Congresspeople” are different groups for different lobbyists.
Two unlikely members of Congress would like to limit lobbying: Ted Cruz and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC). This just goes to show that politics makes strange bedfellows. AOC wants to shut down the revolving doors so that Congresspeople cannot only become lobbyists after a long waiting period, if at all. This is no small problem; more than half (60%) of people who quit Congress become lobbyists. Cruz proposes that there be a lifetime ban on lobbying for anyone who has ever served in Congress. The Senate imposes a two-year waiting period for Senators who resign before they can take up lobbying. The Senate passed this in 2007 but the House refused. After all, why would they vote against their own financial interest? (And these rules apply to “registered” lobbyists who are just a subset of the total lobbying army of flying monkeys.)
Anyone can become a lobbyist on a small scale by simply writing or calling Congress and petitioning for specific policies or votes. However, Congress does not seem to answer any letters that don’t enclose a wad of cash. Somehow our representatives in D.C. become deaf when we approach them empty-handed.
Lobbying can be one of the business activities in American with the highest return on investment. This, in turn, drives up the remunerations that lobbyists expect to receive, and ultimately it allows a tiny but wealthy minority to dominate politics. It’s no wonder Washington, D.C., is one of the richest parts of the country. According to City-Data.com, the median household income in D.C. is $101,027 and 24% of all D.C. households have an annual income in excess of $200,000. Washington, D.C. started out as a humble backwater town that morphed into a middle-class enclave. Today, it’s the Nerd Riviera.
Just to further underscore that our laws about lobbying are insane, check these out.
A lobbyist is not allowed to buy a Congressperson a lunch or even bring in a cup of commissary coffee or a breakfast burrito to a representative. But if the lobbyist calls the meeting a “fundraiser,” that lobbyist can now buy the Congressperson a steak, a Scotch, and a fancy dessert before slipping $25K into his campaign account—and it’s legal.
A company cannot just directly give money to a Congressperson. That would be a bribe. But if that company hires a lobbyist who hosts a fundraiser at a posh hotel, the money raised (which can be donated entirely by company in question) can legally be given to the Congressperson.
Think one political party is better or more ethical than the other? Both Democrats and Republicans are big into lobbying. In fact, lobbying companies work for both sides of the aisle and will do so at the same time, if it suits their interests.
In some cases, the lobbyists or their companies write the actual legislation that Congress passes. Those 2,000 page bills don’t write themselves! So we have banks writing laws about investments, green energy companies writing environmental policies, and Big Pharma literally drafting the legislation governing our healthcare industry.
Lobbying is becoming more and more attractive to former Congresspeople. In 1970, only about 5% of those retiring from the Senate or the House became a lobbyist. Today it’s about 50% of all retiring Senators and 33% of all retiring Representatives. And those are the ones who register, not the “stealth lobbyists.”
So many “stealth lobbyists” exist, it is hard to know how much lobbying is going on. One estimate says that we know about half of all lobbying, but that’s just a guess.
So how do we fix this quagmire? Like most political policies, it’s simple and yet will never be implemented apart from some sort of monumental revolution. Lobbying, or petitioning Congress, is constitutionally protected, so we have to come to terms with the fact that the public has the right to go to the Capitol and express its opinions. But just because it is always going to be legal to lobby does not mean we cannot uncouple lobbying from donating money. We can allow for lobbying, but make it illegal for lobbyists to donate money or other services to candidates. Furthermore, we can tighten up registration laws so we know who is lobbying and we can ban retiring Congresspeople from working as lobbyists.
It's mainly the money that is corrupting politics, and there is no end of special interest money in sight. It’s one of our few political problems where there is virtually no political divide by party—it’s more like the pro-bribery crowd versus the anti-bribery crowd, and the former is larger than the latter. So we have finally found political unity between Democrats and Republicans in this country … sadly, it is unity in what is borderline criminality.
I had no idea.... Wow...