Is Lobbying Bribery

What is lobbying? How does it work? Where does the money come from? And why are they willing to spend it? What is the solution?

What is lobbying?

The Dictionary defines it as, “Lobbying is the practice of influencing decisions made by government. It includes all attempts to influence legislators and officials, whether by other legislators, constituents or organized groups. A lobbyist is a person who tries to influence legislation on behalf of a special interest or a member of a lobby.”

So lobbying is any attempt to influence decisions made by government. Therefore not all lobbying is bribery, some lobbying is probably legitimate. However not all lobbying is either legal or ethical.

How does it work?

Lobbying firms contract with deep-pocketed special interest groups and companies to represent them in getting legislation past that benefit them. The lobbying firms then hire persons who have connections in the particular governmental departments, government agencies or legislature to represent these special interests. These persons with connections are hired from all governmental agencies. They also seek to get their persons of influence appointed to these agencies as the openings arise. This is known as the “Revolving Door.” As these personnel move from place to place money gets passed around to people in decision making positions.

Have you ever wondered where all that campaign money comes from? According to Center for Responsive Politics much of it comes from lobbyists. Have you ever wondered what happens to the difference between what is raised and what they actually spend to get elected or re-elected? You like me are left to guess but they show it as left over or balance of campaign funds.

This practice of buying influence is not new to our day and time. It has showed itself in almost every government throughout history in some form or other. The rich buy influence with their money and laws and justice is swayed in their favor. In the prophet Micah’s day it was prevalent in Israel‘s government and God strongly condemned it. Micah 7:3 (NLT) ³ They go about their evil deeds with both hands. How skilled they are at using them! Officials and judges alike demand bribes. The people with money and influence pay them off, and together they scheme to twist justice.

God also condemned the practice through the prophet Isaiah. Isaiah 1:23-26 (NASB77) “²³ Your rulers are rebels, And companions of thieves; Everyone loves a bribe, And chases after rewards.”

Notice God condemns everyone involved; the rich who use their money to pervert justice, the politicians who accept their money in exchange for influence and in our day would include the lobbyist middle-man who executes the exchange. God calls them evil, rebels and thieves and they are a cancer that is eating away at our democracy and even more so at the integrity in our government.

Where does the money come from?

Again, according to the Center for Responsive Politics,  last year 3¼ Billion dollars were spent in Washington, DC by more than 15,000 lobbyists trying to influence our government’s decisions. These are the legally recorded lobbyists and their expenditures. It is said by many  that much money passes hands without a trace of evidence and I believe this is so. Have you ever wondered how a politician enters politics with a modest net worth and retires with an excessive net worth that isn’t reflected in their salary rates or legitimate ability to increase by those proportions?

Why are these special interest groups willing to spend so much money on lobbying?

It’s because the return is good.

Example: It concerns me that even though Obama has campaigned saying there would be no lobbyists in his administration; many of his appointments are Revolving Door persons who have both worked for government and the lobbying firms on K Street. Obama was the largest recipient of these campaign funds of any of the presidential candidates both in the primaries and in the general election.

It also concerns me that even though he campaigned saying that his would be an open administration that would not tolerate corruption many of his appointments have had to drop out of the endorsement process because of corruption.

It seems that the lobbying strategies are at work at the highest levels of government. Special interest paid out their excessive amounts of money for influence, lobbyists make the connections and disperse large amounts of money into campaign funds, candidates compensate by appointing them to government positions of influence and they are then in a position to affect government decisions and laws.

What is the solution?

In the early days of the United States of American government we had statesmen who went to Washington to serve their government and the people. Today the majority of politicians are there not to serve people and country but to line their own pockets.

1. We need to return to the early pattern of government. Our government officials, including the president, need to be statesmen who represent the people for a set period of time and return home to normal life at the end of their terms. That would mean limiting terms of office for all government offices. They should not be set financially for the rest of their lives because they served in a particular office. Their retirement should be reflected in their Social Security earnings from their salaries plus a realistic retirement benefit based on equivalent employment in the private sector.

2.  Politicians should not be allowed to set their own salaries, raises and benefits. They are employees of the people and their pay and benefits should be established by the vote of the general population they represent.

3. That would probably mean that we as citizens would have to throw out all the existing politicians and elect new persons for every office. We would then have to mandate that they set up terms of office for every government position.

4. We need to see and name lobbying for what it is, “bribery” and make any form of it illegal with sever punishment.

5. We desperately need campaign finance reform that strictly regulates the size of all contributions and only by individual contributors, does not allow special interest groups to contribute and strict documentation and disclosure for every contribution thus restoring a semblance of integrity to our government.

Some more of God’s statements about bribery

Exodus 23:8 (NLT)
⁸ “Take no bribes, for a bribe makes you ignore something that you clearly see. A bribe always hurts the cause of the person who is in the right.

Proverbs 17:23 (NIV)
²³ A wicked man accepts a bribe in secret to pervert the course of justice.

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