Lobbyists: Their Opinion Means More Than Yours, Or At Least To Congress

Noah Roberts

Junior year, after we had completed the AP government and politics exam, my class watched the movie, “Thank You for Smoking” starring Aaron Eckhart and Cameron Bright. The movie focuses on a slick lobbyist, Nick Naylor, who works for the Big Tobacco Corporation. Throughout the movie, Naylor is often spinning the reported negative effects of smoking and trying to work out deals with the government on how to brand and warn society about the effects of smoking. The twisted agenda of Naylor and the Big Tobacco corporation was to market cigarettes in the most appealing way possible. They didn’t care that they were deceiving the public into buying goods that were damaging to their health; they were focused on maximizing their sales and profits. Although this movie satirized to show the extremes of lobbying, it holds some truth in the relationship between businesses and government.

To learn more about the state of lobbying within our government, I read,”How Corporate Lobbyists Conquered American Democracy” written by Lee Drutman from The Atlantic. Drutman brought to light the continual growth of lobbying in our government. Lobbyists reportedly spend $2.6 billion a year, which is more than the $2 billion that is provided to fund the House of Representatives and Senate combined. Compared to the 1950s and 60s, where special interest groups and labor unions had much more impact in the government, business lobbying has become the strongest force in government influence. The relationship between government and business has completely flipped in the last 50 years, from corporations shifting their focus from avoiding government involvement in their business, to focusing on how they can be business partners with the government. This has resulted in more lobbyists being more politically active and proposing and supporting more laws and legislation.

The most obvious “Big Idea” to me, is the relationship between business, state, and society. The actions of business and government are not so separate, and actually go hand in hand. The businesses and government are proposing new laws that can benefit both of them. For example, the article states how in 2000, the industry lobbyists were able to get Medicare Part D passed, which would benefit them by $205 billion in the span of a decade. The lobbyists were able to use the government as a vehicle to a major profit, while Congress was able to get legislation passed. So, if both sides are getting what they want, it makes sense the lobbying relationships have grown so rapidly. This relationship, however, ultimately effects the everyday people in society. For example, when a deal with Medicare Part D was made between the government and corporations, it resulted in different Medicare options offered to the people. Or when a cigarette company like the one portrayed in the movie actually does lobby for less regulation on their products, more people will be attracted to consuming more of their product.

Lobbying in the government doesn’t always result with a harmful outcome for the people in our society. What it does do, though, is take away the voice of the people. Everyday workers who are a part of labor unions or special interest groups now have less of an impact with what legislation is passed. Congress is listening to the people with the money, and not the people who have to deal with the outcome of whatever is passed. The article mentions that for every dollar spent by a special interest group, lobbyists are spending $34 and that each corporation has about 100 lobbyists. With no way to compare to these resources, the interests of the common man are being drowned out.

In his 1961 Inaugural Address, John F. Kennedy stated one of the most famous quotes, “Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.” I think that corporate lobbyists should reflect on this quote, as it seems to me they are trying to see what our government can do for them.

The Transformation of Corporate Lobbying

Trevor Rogers

When one envisions corporate lobbyists one might picture a man in an expensive suit and a too white grin wining and dining a shady congressman. This is the image that comes to mind when we think of what a lobbyist truly does. However, lobbying is a relatively recent phenomenon, taking Washington by storm in only the last few decades. In the article, “How Corporate Lobbyists Conquered American Democracy” Lee Drutman details the history of lobbying and how the practice transformed over time into its current iteration.

The “Big Idea” that is most prevalent within lobbying is its complexity, especially its transformation over time. So let’s go through the history of lobbying and discover how it has transformed. Starting off in the Gilded Age we had a time of extreme influence by business in the government, pushing for certain legislation. This relationship was disrupted by a Great Depression and two World Wars. Now skipping ahead to the 1960’s we had a system where labor unions had significant influence in legislation, not the corporations. At this time it seemed futile for corporations to spend money lobbying for legislation, with one prominent corporate lawyer even commenting about how useless it was to try to influence legislation.

As every business executive knows, few elements of American society today have as little influence in government as the American businessman, the corporation, or even the millions of corporate stockholders. If one doubts this, let him undertake the role of ‘lobbyist’ for the business point of view before Congressional committees.”

     As we can see the attitude of businessmen towards influencing the government was essentially, “Well, we can’t get anything done, so why even try?” That was the case until 1972 when the Business Roundtable was founded by several prominent businessmen. John Harper, CEO of Alcoa, remarked ” I think we all recognize that the time has come when we must stop talking about it, and get busy and do something about it.” His comment reflects the frustration felt by businessmen at their inability to influence the legislation that so directly effected their lives. After a few corporations sent lobbyists to Washington and started actually influencing bills, such as a major labor law reform and lowering corporate taxes, they began seeing just how successful lobbying could be. There was a major shift that occurred during the late 80’s that is perfectly captured by this quotation by a lobbyist, “Twenty-five years ago…it was ‘just keep the government out of our business, we want to do what we want to do,’ and gradually that’s changed to ‘how can we make the government our partners?’ It’s gone from ‘leave us alone’ to ‘let’s work on this together.'”

  With the current state of lobbying we must now focus on another “Big Idea”, and that is the unintended consequences that came with allowing corporations and lawmakers to become such tight partners. We now are faced with a modern lobbying scene with more than the $2 billion spent to fund the House ($1.18 billion) and Senate ($860 million). For every dollar spent on lobbying for labor unions, large corporations spend 34, totally flipping the status quo from the 60’s and 70’s. Corporations are now able to play both offense and defense against government policies, getting some passed and others blocked, whichever ones they deem to have the most benefit to themselves. So how to we get back the balance? How can we reverse this pattern of corporate control? Well, Drutman has a few ideas. First, we must invest more into the Government, especially Congress. This would allow the leading policymakers to have the resources that are necessary so that they can hire and retain experienced staff, so they will not have to rely so much of lobbyists. Second, organizations that advocate for policies that are less well-funded need more financial support.

Overall, we are posed with this simple question. Who do we want creating legislation that affects this country and our own personal lives, our elected representatives or multi-billion dollar corporations?