January 25th, 2008

(2 votes, average: 4 out of 5)

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Mike Bloomberg on the Influence of Lobbyists

Lobbyist influence is another thing that Bloomberg alludes to in his 1/23/08 speech accepting the National Leadership Award from the US Conference of Mayors:

“We all know that spending decisions in Washington are driven by whatever will attract votes and campaign cash. You can see it in the farm bill: 10 percent of farms – the large agribusinesses – captured 75 percent of the benefits, while the small family farmer got a few crumbs. You can see it in the energy bill, which was also a gift to agribusiness – and the rest of us are paying higher food prices as a result. And you can see it in the response to New Orleans, banks got their mortgages covered, but people still lost their homes. We can do better – if we start focusing on stimulus policies that make sense over the long term. Without keeping you here all night, I’d like to touch on a few ways we can do that.”

That Lobbyist influence has grown way out of control in the last 20 years in DC. It seems any more that Congress and the Executive Branch is just a minor league training ground for the real seats of power and influence nowadays in DC - K street!

With 2,500 lobbying firms and 65,000 lobbyists populating K-Street and Gucci Gulch around Capitol Hill, Bloomberg is well aware of the inimical growth and dominance of this 4th Branch of Government. These Lobbyists (many of them former Congressional Members/Staffers and Exec Branch Officers) know where to pull the levers in the dead of the night to get their codicil, earmark or amendment embedded into legislation that benefits their particular special interest. Mike is one person who call attention to and a reign in this sad state of affairs where the Special Interests end up trumping the overall National Interest.

To get things done in Washington in terms of the overall national interest we need a fighter such as Mike Bloomberg who has the political courage, intuitive skills, and clout to stand up to these Special Interests who work their many ways to deny a cogent and rational realization of the overall National Interest on all issues. To make government truly accountable and responsible again, help Mike reign these Lobbyists in and get America BACK!!

See all of Mike’s insightful speech here.