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132 Comments
- theuniversal, on 11/15/2009, -1/+136There really should be stronger regulations/punishments/incentives to prevent corporations and corporate heads and members of congress from colluding like this. This kind of stuff makes a joke of democracy.
- ScottyAnimal, on 11/15/2009, -1/+100Just because it happens all the time doesn't make it less nefarious.
Why do we have congressmen? Lets save some money by firing them and just let the lobbyist debate and write bills.
Thats what they are doing anyway and we just lose money by paying these morons to paraphrase.
Sickening. - harvinator24, on 11/15/2009, -2/+80Real change will not occur unless the lobbyists are out of Washington.
- 4Heavenssake, on 11/15/2009, -1/+71I don't care what the issue is, just tell them to keep their mouths shut until they can represent the folks who actually voted for them. They are supposed to speak for those who elected them! If we tell them the issue is murky or something beyond our understanding, we will tell them to go get some "professional" opinions about what to say, then they may do that. Even then they should report back to us before opening their big, possibly (and likely it seems for most of them these days) ignorant mouths. The corporations did not vote!
- algaeturd, on 11/15/2009, -3/+57Notice: Your country is not run by the people, for the people. Not even by proxy via elected officials. Your country is run by the companies that own the most money. Period.
No more debate, no more discussion or argument. There is more than enough evidence to support that these people who are elected are
1. Trying to rise as high as they can so they do what they're told by the people with the most money
2. Trying to keep whatever position they have so they make sure not to piss off the ones holding the cash who can get them re-elected.
Your voices mean absolutely nothing unless you're speaking while you hand them large, obscenely large sums of money. - nauscopy, on 11/15/2009, -2/+29What we need is a constitutional amendment:
- publicly elected officials cannot accept money/gifts/services/swag of any kind or ammount
- public financing of elections
This is the only way to break the stranglehold of money on our elected officials at all levels of government. - algaeturd, on 11/15/2009, -2/+28Um, lobbyists and health care reform?
Laughable. That's a small start.
How about lobbyists and every single issue that's voted on in Washington.
There. I fixed it for you. - westri17, on 11/15/2009, -0/+19How the ***** does anyone accept an answer like
“I regret that the language was the same. I did not know it was.” He said he got his statement from his staff and “did not know where they got the information from.” - Representative Bill Pascrell Jr., Democrat of New Jersey
Why are you even speaking before Congress then? You have no idea where you got your information from, so instead you just speak out of your ass? These people are morons who don't give a ***** about the people they are SUPPOSED to represent. - ericthesalmon, on 11/15/2009, -1/+19Digg is more than one person and its members do not all agree on everything.
- ScottyAnimal, on 11/15/2009, -1/+19Your point would be valid if corporations were not allowed to influence lawmakers with ridiculous amounts of money. Yes they should be allowed to voice their disapproval of bills and laws that affect them, however, there is a conflict of interest involved when the support is garnered simply from the amount paid.
The fault here does truly lie on the congressmen who take the money and/or agree to such terms as to be paid off. We as a people do not have as much of a direct line to them as the corporations do. My e-mail suggesting what to say an be quoted on gets deleted, Genetechs gets printed and framed because $100,000 was sent along with it. - waspbr, on 11/15/2009, -1/+19and money out of politics,
- Mujokan, on 11/15/2009, -1/+17I'm an Obama supporter, and I bitch about lobbyists pretty often here. It's the single most important problem in the American political system. It's not a partisan issue.
Supporting Obama doesn't mean you have to say everything is sunshine all the time. I have plenty of problems with White House policy (especially some DoJ decisions, and also stuff relating to trade agreements, which again is mostly down to corporate pressure). But Obama is not the same as the previous guy in charge (namely Dick Cheney) and his policy platform is way better than the GOP one. - acknotSW, on 11/15/2009, -1/+15The problem: our laws are written by lobbyists who then bribe the people who vote on them.
The bigger problem: the only people who are allowed and able to fix the problem are the same people who are being bribed.
The biggest problem: The only people who can change out the people responsible for not fixing the bigger problem are the voters. I doubt that more then 30% of Americans are even aware that their representative's sole goal when we send them to Washington is to raise enough money to get reelected.
I don't know what it's finally going to take to get the American people to wake up to the way our government is operating, maybe 25% unemployment would do it, maybe we will have to wait for another round of bailouts, but at some point the people will get fed up with this *****. - krebcycle, on 11/15/2009, -0/+12huh? why do you even bother? nobody could take your garbage seriously
- Alheithinn, on 11/15/2009, -0/+11The politicians aren't fall guys. Nobody is making them take a penny. they're masters of their own souls and need to accept personal responsibility for the betrayal of the trust of those who voted for them.
- skipvt, on 11/15/2009, -0/+10I'm shocked, shocked, I tell you! Of course it's not my congressmen who's being unduly influenced by these shady lobbyist. I tried to talk to him about this, but was told he's on a fact finding/trading partner mission to Aruba. Boy, he sure is a hard worker.
- AdmiralHalsey, on 11/15/2009, -3/+13Any organized group seeking to subvert our government systematically should be considered an enemy of the state. In my opinion, this is only an accepted form of treason and should be handled as such. It is ***** insane that this happens at all, let alone being the standard upon which politicians are able to afford running their campaigns for office. These groups pose considerable more harm to us than any terrorist group we're at war against, because these lobby groups are extremely successful. We are being destroyed from within. Despicable.
- wavenger, on 11/15/2009, -0/+9I think we should make politicians wear the logos of the corporations who sponsor them, ala racecar drivers.
- beautifulady, on 11/15/2009, -2/+11Joe Wilson, he of the "you're a liar" outburst, is caught with his hand in the lobbyist cookie jar. What an ass.
- theuniversal, on 11/15/2009, -0/+9"Sometimes I can't tell which side of the fence digg is on, either you support freedom and rights, and the issue lies with the public's only involvement is through their television sets and stupid ass 9/12 protests. Or you want to regulate and don't believe in free market."
Genetech can devote millions in resources to hire full time professional lobbyists to influence policy makers on a single focussed issue. For obvious reasons the average citizen or even group of citizens have trouble competing with that, particularly when you have thousands of corporate interests like Genetech throwing hundreds of millions of dollars at our lawmakers. It's just plain bizarre that you consider yourself pro "freedom and rights" to support a system where corporate entities are freely allowed to more or less purchase the opinions of our supposed democratic representatives. But hey, I'm sure at least that your black and white understanding of either being pro free market or anti free market is convenient for you, because you can hold it without having to think much. - jbwages, on 11/15/2009, -0/+9You are free to do as they sell you.
- c010rb1indusa, on 11/15/2009, -0/+9I agree, only campaign finance reform will fix washington. Once money from special interest is no longer a necessity to win an election, then we will see real change.
- kenlaw, on 11/15/2009, -0/+8The only fix is to get the massive amounts of money out of the system. Strict campaign spending limits. Do we really need to speed several billion dollars to elect congress every two years? The last presidential campaign cost almost a billion dollars. Eliminate political action committees (PACS), they are just ways of hiding who is actually paying.
- WhiteHatTrick, on 11/15/2009, -2/+8The politicians serve as fall guys to the corporate interests pulling the strings and setting the agenda in the shadows, a gateway to block the people of this nation from acknowledging and solving the heart of the problem--mega-corporations are the government--the cops are the crooks--corporatocracy, fascism, and democide.
- TinfoilHats, on 11/15/2009, -0/+6There should be ZERO money allowed into politics. We should have 100 percent publicly funded campaigns. The minuscule expense would be nothing compared to the democracy we'd be saving.
- LouiseCalabro, on 11/15/2009, -0/+6Tell Congress: GET THE LOBBYISTS OUT OF THE LAWMAKING PROCESS!
- sabret00the, on 11/15/2009, -2/+8This is really nothing short of disgusting.
- Cowicide, on 11/15/2009, -3/+8The difference is often grassroots organizations funded and supported by concerned citizens versus astro-turf organizations funded and supported indirectly or directly by corporations that pull together pawns through lies, payoffs and other trickery.
- tgc1, on 11/16/2009, -0/+5Tyranny.
- BlacklabelSAR, on 11/16/2009, -0/+5Man Skywise, you are wrong yet again.
This article shows that *both* parties are bought and paid for by Big Business. A perfect example of what happens when we call money free speech and give corporations all the rights of a flesh and blood person. - BlacklabelSAR, on 11/16/2009, -0/+5This is what is defended as free market capitalism. Unbelievable.
- MrPlatypus, on 11/15/2009, -0/+5Wow...
- JHW539, on 11/15/2009, -0/+4"Lets save some money by firing them and just let the lobbyist debate and write bills. "
I know you're being sarcastic, but this is exactly what we've done. We do not fund the kind of research or pay representatives enough to be experts in any field. They rely on privately funded research and experts, aka lobbyists. This outsourcing of research and expertise can actually work provided both sides of an issue are funding lobbyists.
I doubt it will change - just listen to the ranting for term limits and pay cuts for Congress (which would tilt the expertise and funding field even more away from public servants to private lobbyists). - ohplease, on 11/15/2009, -0/+4Anyone who's played Prototype is ***** bricks right now
- strangewill, on 11/15/2009, -4/+8Digg does have a very strong overall demographic, I'm not arguing this to someone that has -59 diggs.
- BeUnimpressed, on 11/15/2009, -1/+5That sounds so familiar... where have I heard it before.
Oh well, must be new since I can't pin where I've heard it. ;) - diggforlabor, on 11/15/2009, -1/+5We have to get money out of politics. It's that simple I would ask people to support change-congress.org.
- sarahlee, on 11/15/2009, -1/+5You understand, don't you, that the executive branch does not control Congress?
This is our problem - with the folks we elect and the lack of citizens lobbying their reps to demand representation. When newspapers across the country are filled with Letters To the Editor exposing BS like this and demanding public funding of elections and the congressional inboxes and voice mails are filled daily with complaings and demands for more restrictions on corporate contributions and influence we will get change. - Rapter09, on 11/15/2009, -0/+4 And yet... nobody cares. Because if anybody really cared something would have been done about it. People should be lobbying their statesmen to get their act together but they're not, because they're either too stupid, too apathetic, or have their own agenda to push.
They don't even try to hide it anymore, here we have a news article plainly stating "We wrote statements and provided money to these people." but yet nobody *cares*.
So... yeah. You deserve whatever you get, really. - portnoy, on 11/15/2009, -2/+6I think the problem here stems from one thing, term limits. You have congress stuffed with people with little experience being influenced by lobbyists that have lots more experience. A lot of those lobbyists are ex-lawmakers who left office due to term limits and are the only people in Washington with experience actually writing laws. We're the ones who demanded term limits and we're he ones who elect these bozos into office. Lobbyists are a necessary part of the process in Washington. The problem are these morons that are too stupid and lazy to write the laws (or apparently to even have their own opinions) and have the lobbyists do it for them. To be honest it surprises me that they aren't letting the lobbyists vote on these laws as well.
- malex, on 11/15/2009, -2/+620 is more than 22?
I think perhaps you're the one who's having trouble reading. - malex, on 11/15/2009, -1/+4From the article you claim that other people need to read: "Genentech, a subsidiary of the Swiss drug giant Roche, estimates that 42 House members picked up some of its talking points — 22 Republicans and 20 Democrats, an unusual bipartisan coup for lobbyists."
Think before you type. - lurrch1, on 11/16/2009, -1/+4Got to love how the Republicans and Democrats attack each but in reality they're just united to screw us all over.
- ericthesalmon, on 11/15/2009, -0/+3Actually it's still the same set.
- Lane, on 11/15/2009, -4/+7I completely agree, I'm going to send a strongly worded letter to my representatives. Certainly that will take care of that!
/s - TinfoilHats, on 11/15/2009, -0/+3If that was the matter? Interesting phrase there. The candidates would all be given equal amounts. I know...hard to come up with, right?
- jahayiti, on 11/15/2009, -3/+6Lobbyists and Health Care Reform
- TEdwardK, on 11/15/2009, -0/+3@DrNemo
Because no one is passionate enough to work hard to better their country for a decent wage? - acknotSW, on 11/15/2009, -0/+3When more then 25% of the voters vote a straight party ticket and another 25% just vote for whoever is currently in office, it makes is almost impossible to remove a sitting republican from a red state or a sitting democrat from a blue state.
So I have to agree with you, the people are pretty much stupid and apathetic, and we are getting what we deserve right now.
I remember an episode of Bill Maher about a year ago and he was interviewing a politician from Germany I believe, maybe France. The way the guy spoke and presented himself was vastly different than any American politician I've ever seen. He wasn't out to say what people wanted to hear, he wasn't towing a party line, and he would not be baited by bill into making stupid jokes about a subject he clearly felt strongly about. In other words, he seemed to still have his self respect, something I doubt any politicians here still have anymore. Maybe that's why so many of them seem so self destructive when it comes to their personal behavior. - redxii, on 11/15/2009, -0/+3One cause of that is that you aren't allowing or blocked cookies for nytimes.com.
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