Why Are Lobbyists Effective

1. They are important source of information. A member who is part of congress has to evolve themselves with many policy areas. But a lobbyists can confine themselves to one area and can by providing specialized expertise. If the information is powerful, then the lobbyist can be an allies.

America is known by many to be the best countries in the world but there are still many things that stand in the way of the american dream (Stealing From America). One of these things is corporate lobbyist. These people have slowly taken over american democracy with pay to play corruption and giant lobbying teams (The Atlantic). Nowadays unions and protest have been much less successful in stopping the behemoth that is a corporate lobbying team(Secular Talk). Corporation will continue to grow wealth inequality in america if we do nothing about it.

Nevertheless, while federal law dictates that political advertisers must file a disclosure report if contributions exceed $10,000, donors can easily maintain their identities nonetheless. Furthermore, donors can now easily transfer money through “intermediary nonprofits”, otherwise known as super PACs (Murray Digby Marziani 2-3). In 2010 and 2012, “70-80% of super PAC finances directly supported or opposed federal candidates, and in 2012, super PACs spent a total of $620.9 million supporting or opposing House, Senate, and presidential candidates (United States Cong. Congressional Research Service 1-3). As a result, individuals have been left unaware of the influences corporations and other groups have had on federal

Today, we still find significant concerns for how vast and powerful interest groups and their associated PACs have become over the past few decades, and their far reaching ability they have to affect even the highest court in the

While choosing electing official with common values and philosophies is a great way to get representation on social issues, interest groups are also helpful in keeping an open line of communication with elected officials on what is most important to the affected group. Interest groups use tactics to protect policies by focusing on the unknown consequences and keeping close relationships with government officials whose values are similar (Baumgartner, Jeffery, & Hojnacki (2009). One interest group who has knowledgeable lobbyists to affect public policy is the National Rifle Association (NRA). The NRA is a single issue group who advocates their position by using both the direct and indirect approach to rally support on issues in Congress.

Interest groups in Texas are relatively powerful actors in the political process. Organized interest groups and their representatives, also known as “the lobby” participates in the policymaking and political processes in Texas. Interest groups provide critical channels for Texans to communicate their political preferences and attempt to influence government actors and their fellow

Because interest groups are protected by the First Amendment, they cannot be outlawed. However, their activities--particularly lobbying and making financial contributions--can be regulated. The 1973 Lobby Regulation Act, amended in 1983, is much more effective than two earlier attempts at regulating interest groups, one in 1907 and the other in 1957. In spite of its more stringent provisions, the total number of persons lobbying is much higher than the fifteen hundred groups and persons who annually register. The rise of bureaucracy requires interest groups to influence key points in government.

I have heard of a lobbyist before but never fully understood what it meant or what they do. A lobbyist is a person who tries to influence legislation on behalf of a special interest. Jack Abramoff scandal was an extreme example of influence and corruption in the United States government. It stated in the video that Abramoff "symbolizes how money corrupts Washington. " This is important because it shows how congressmen don't think they are being bought or influenced.

In today’s government, there are two groups that can influence the way people vote for candidates in political races. They are known as a Super Pac and 501c4. Super Pacs are committees that became significant in 2010 after the court decision in the SpeechNow.org v. Federal Election Commission (Super Pacs). A 501c4 is referred as “social welfare” groups. Their primary focus is to promote social welfare causes (Sullivan).

Nowadays, many of our representatives are career politicians who focus on serving our nation for a living. The National Bank of the United States, now called as the Federal Reserve, is still regulating the US cash flow and economic system as a whole. Tariffs are commonly used by our government today, as are federally funded internal improvements, such the Hoover Dam, national highways, and aiding states within repair projects like that of the George Washington Bridge. Although partisanship is extremely high within the Congress, politicians today are still sometimes able to compromise on issues, allowing for each side of an argument to benefit from their decision in one way or another. However, there are still corrupt political bargains that occur in the backdoors of Washington D.C., like that Henry Clay had concocted with John Quincy

Big powerful special interest groups have interfered with politicians’ decision to do what’s right; it appears that the political system has become corrupted and money plays a big role in their decision and money is very influential in getting the legislators to pass bills. One would believe that our politicians are making the battles between the political parties personally; it appear that if the parties don’t agree with another, they resort to drastic measures such as shutting down the government causing more hardship on

Over the last few decades, the United States Congress has debated numerous campaign finance reforms. Debated proposals have included limiting independent expenditures, raising limits on individual contributions, banning all private campaign contributions, and creating a public financing campaign system. In many of the debates, compelling arguments exist for both the proponents and the opponents. Generally, arguments are predicated upon constitutional concepts, Supreme Court rulings, standard policy, logic and reason, and personal perspectives.

What makes an Interest group powerful? Most interest groups get their reputation from how big they are, from financial advantages, leadership but I think most importantly what makes Interest groups powerful is how they motivate and bring together their supporters. All of us have some topic we are passionate or interested in that could be heard by the government, many Americans join because they are motivated by the goals their group supports, in a way the interest groups help citizens have a say and be heard. As mentioned in the Political Science Cengage book something that really stuck to me and I believe can be true about the Interest groups is ‘’ they help bridge the gap between citizens and government’’ meaning these groups help people be a part of something they believe in, something they can freely express because that’s what our 1st amendment allows us to pursue the freedom of speech, of the press and the right to peacefully

Dating back to its inception Congress “has never been a place for paupers (Lightblau, 5).” With each change in the country, the United States Congress rarely deviated away from its long-standing tradition of having wealthy, white men heavily represented in both chambers. Individuals who were elected ranged from “plantation owners, industrialists, ex- Wall Street financiers and Internet executives (Lightblau, 5).” Research conducted shows that “the typical member of Congress is worth more than nine times the typical voter that puts them in Washington (Thompson, 2).”

One of the well-known federal fraud and abuse statutes in the United States is the federal Anti-Kickback Statute, which greatly influences business relationships in the pharmaceutical, healthcare and medical device sectors. This statute is an Anti-Corruption law, which is designed to protect beneficiaries of the federal health care program from money influence on various referral decisions. Thus, this law helps in guarding against an increase in costs, overutilization and poor quality services. However, this law needs some modifications to become more efficient to all the U.S citizens. The lawmakers in the country should take the initiative of amending this bill so as to ensure that they adequately represent the interests of those people who