(Source: politicalprof, via bethanypost)
In [a recent IMF study called] “Three’s Company: Wall Street, Capitol Hill, and K Street,” the authors look at the data – lots of it – on lobbying by financial-sector companies in the US…
The results are simply staggering – although surely not a surprise to professional lobbyists. A big increase in lobbying expenditures helps to persuade legislators to switch their votes. And “whether any of the lobbyists working on a bill also worked for a legislator in the past sways the stance on that bill in favor of deregulation.”
It is deregulation, of course, that financial firms want – fewer rules and less oversight of any kind.
The Libertarian and the Lobbyists
This is why I laugh at perpetually wrong and wrong-headed libertarian imbeciles who claim that getting rid of government would eliminate corporate corruption. Governments don’t corrupt corporations, corporations corrupt governments. America isn’t immune to this corruption, but it’s also not completely overwhelmed by it; even with all the regulatory capture and deregulation that occurred under the Bush Junta, in the end it was good government and good regulations that saved the economy (and the country) from total ruin by Wall Street running amok.
Corporate headhunters are sizing up the K Street prospects of the retiring members of the 112th Congress — and they like what they see.
Twenty-five representatives and senators so far have announced they will retire from Capitol Hill after this year’s election. Executives who work to place ex-lawmakers at law firms, lobby shops and corporate boards are monitoring the outgoing lawmakers and discussing who could go where — and how much they would earn.
“We are doing a mock draft with some of our clients,” Ivan Adler, a principal with the McCormick Group, told The Hill.
The retiring class includes lawmakers who are known for their bipartisan ties, and others who have spent decades on Capitol Hill accruing seniority on powerful committees. That mix of attributes has many on K Street licking their chops.
K Street headhunters enamored with upcoming class of retiring lawmakers
