Not business as usual.

In an ideal world, members of Congress would dine every day with a single mother struggling to pay for child care or a person who just lost a job and has no health insurance. Members of Congress would fly coach, rather than fancy corporate jets. Members of Congress would understand the needs of average Americans and make laws to answer those needs.

But the world in which we live is far from ideal. The people with the greatest access to members of Congress are not single mothers, the uninsured or any other member of the general voting public. The people with the most access to members of Congress are business lobbyists.

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Why? Cold, hard cash. Lobbyists and corporate executives deliver millions of dollars on which members of Congress rely to run their campaigns. These corporate moneyed interests donate their own money and bundle campaign cash from others. Jack Abramoff, for example, personally contributed about $200,000 to federal candidates and campaign committees since 1999 and an additional $4.2 million to them in contributions from his clients, mostly American Indian casinos. That's big-time dough, even in Washington, DC. And that's why he could set up meetings between his clients and President Bush, for whom he was a key fundraiser.

Lobbyists contribute to lawmakers' charities, which are sometimes shell operations designed as vehicles to accept cash for the care and feeding of the politicians. They arrange exotic trips for members of Congress and allow lawmakers to travel on plush, private jets.

These same lobbyists then seek favors from the lawmakers they have helped, which is why we see legislation--such as the Medicare prescription drug bill or last year's energy bill--that overwhelmingly benefits corporate interests rather than senior citizens or drivers who are gouged at the pumps.

This money culture that can unduly influence even some of the best will prevail in Washington unless we break the financial link between politicians and lobbyists. The U.S. Senate failed miserably in its efforts to enact reform; in March, it passed a bill that did nothing to cut off the money flow.

Congress needs to bite the bullet and approve public financing of campaigns. In the meantime, Congress should bar lobbyists from:

* Arranging campaign fundraisers;

* Bundling campaign contributions;

* Serving on a candidate's campaign finance or political action committee; and

* Making campaign contributions of more than $200 to a member of Congress.

In addition, lobbyist-funded travel for lawmakers and their staffs should be banned. And Congress must establish an independent Office of Public Integrity to police the ethics of lawmakers.

Loath to relinquish their rock star lifestyles, most lawmakers want merely to disclose the financial link between lobbyists and lawmakers, rather than end it. Such fig-leaf changes will only institutionalize today's legalized corruption and set the stage for the next scandal, which will further erode people's confidence in government.

Corruption in Washington hasn't always been this bad, and it needn't be in the future. But to make any meaningful change, Congress must summon the will to ignore the siren of special interests.

VOTER LINKS

* www.citizen.org

* www.lwv.org

BY JOAN CLAYBROOK 

President, Public Citizen