Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
You and I can hardly approach out congressman about a given issue, not effectively anyway. We band together, pool our money and hire the professionals on K Street instead. They have the connections and know how it works behind the scenes. Obvious problem being the corporations who outspend us for that representation.
Also obvious, or should be, not all lobbying efforts are evil.
Simply return things to the way they were. Where only US citizens can contribute to candidates running for office. No corporations and no foreign nationals.
Abolition of lobbying is a non-starter.
You and I can hardly approach out congressman about a given issue, not effectively anyway. We band together, pool our money and hire the professionals on K Street instead. They have the connections and know how it works behind the scenes. Obvious problem being the corporations who outspend us for that representation.
Also obvious, or should be, not all lobbying efforts are evil.
100% agree with you unfortunately.
Better move is to get rid of Citizens United. Fairly certain it’ll have a similar effect that he’s looking for.
Simply return things to the way they were. Where only US citizens can contribute to candidates running for office. No corporations and no foreign nationals.
Agreed! But running for office is a whole different thing.
Also in practice corporate can donate $20M before sending the lobbyist and $30M after depending on their mood.