EDITORIAL LOBBYIST-PALOOZA!IT'S hard to believe that it was nearly 12 years ago when Newt Gingrich and his band of self-proclaimed revolutionaries captured control of Congress for the GOP, vowing to put an end to to destroy. - Fuller. See also: End waste, corruption and reckless federal spending. For a short while, they kept their promises, ushering in Noun 1. ushering in - the introduction of something new; "it signalled the ushering in of a new era" first appearance, introduction, debut, entry, launching, unveiling - the act of beginning something new; "they looked forward to the debut of their new product line" reforms that sought to rein in to check the speed of, or cause to stop, by drawing the reins. to cause (a person) to slow down or cease some activity; - to rein in is used commonly of superiors in a chain of command, ordering a subordinate to moderate or cease some activity deemed excessive. See also: Rein Rein the financial and ethical scandals that had plagued the past, Democratic-controlled Congresses. Then, something changed - the revolutionaries realized they were in charge. Suddenly, the appetite for reform went away and it became business as usual in the Capitol. Today, we face record federal budget deficits. We see Tom DeLay, Duke Cunningham
Randall Harold Cunningham (born December 8 1941), usually known as Randy or Duke and others embroiled em·broil tr.v. em·broiled, em·broil·ing, em·broils 1. To involve in argument, contention, or hostile actions: "Avoid . . . in ethics charges. And Jack Abramoff Jack Abramoff (born February 28, 1959) is a former American political lobbyist, a Republican political activist and businessman who was a central figure in a series of high-profile political scandals. promises to blow the lid off a massive federal lobbying scandal. To those outside the D.C. bubble, it would appear that - as in Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. City Hall and Sacramento - the lobbyists have taken over. Special interests spend thousands on influence peddlers, and reap millions in the form of government contracts, direct subsidies, targeted tax breaks and favorable legislation. Since 1999, the number of lobbyists in Washington has doubled. Everyone who is anyone - and just about everyone else - has lobbyists these days: Local governments, unions, corporations; groups representing every hobby, disease, ideology, trade or discipline imaginable. These are players who command hundreds of dollars an hour for their work. If they weren't reaping rewards for their paymasters, their paymasters wouldn't be paying them. Case in point: The number of ``earmarks'' in the federal budget - porkish appropriations slapped on at the end of the legislative process - has shot up from 62 in 1980 to 2,671 last year. Those add-ons keep the lobbyists employed, and we pay for them. In the face of public outrage, Congress now finds itself scrambling to reform its lobbying rules. Proposed changes include increasing reporting demands, reducing the number of free trips and other goodies for members of Congress, and overhauling the earmarking  It has been suggested that some sections of this article be split into a new article entitled Earmark (USA). process. Rep.
David Dreier, R-Glendora, has been tapped by House Republican leadership
to lead the charge.
All of which is welcome and necessary. But the people have grown weary of politics and politicians' deceptions. They will be rightly skeptical of any reform effort conceived in reaction to an election-year rash of bad publicity. Nothing short of full transparency, with regularly mandated reporting, will even make a dent in regaining the public's trust. This time, the politicians must stop listening to the lobbyists - and start listening to the people. |
|
||||||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion