Lobbying Under The Cloak Of Invisibility

[rodeodance]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A12183-2005Mar6?language=printer

Lobbying Under The Cloak Of Invisibility

By Jeffrey H. Birnbaum

Monday, March 7, 2005; Page E01

President Bush wants to mount a frontal assault on Washington's biggest money issues: retiree benefits, trial lawyer verdicts and the federal income tax. There isn't anyone or any organization that doesn't care deeply about one or more of them. The legislative battles will be massive if the president ever manages to get them off the ground.

The funders of those important fights, however, will for the most part remain shielded from public view. Using perfectly legal means, the groups that plan to bankroll Bush's initiatives and those trying to prevent them from becoming law won't say who their donors are or how much they've given.

That's not the way it ought to be. Politicians have acknowledged for decades that efforts to influence government aren't supposed to be secret. In 1946, Congress passed the Federal Regulation of Lobbying Act, which demanded that lobbyists report the amount and sources of their income both from direct lobbying and from grass-roots style, or indirect lobbying, as well.

The idea back then, still a good one today, was that citizens deserved to know who shaped the laws they lived by.
......

[struggle4progress]

1. kick

[salin]

2. I remember reading that the amount of money spent by Enron

far exceeded the KNOWN amount of money given directly to political campaigns and parties. This is a HUGE deal.

[Rex]

3. Companies control us and our government.

It started the day they invented capitalism. Now Microsoft is worth more than most countries GDP. Instead of watching sports in public arenas, we watch from a company logo bowl. Lobbyist control Congress and the energy companies control the White House.