No Fault Lobbying for Special Interests?

Political reforms share a common denominator: They usually produce unintended consequences. We witness this truth again in today's world of lobbying. President Obama's policies are producing an explosion in special interest group activity, and much of the growth is taking place outside of federal disclosure and other regulations...Several factors contribute to this surprising result. First, government expansion always produces lobbying growth. And Obama is doing his part to enlarge Washington's reach. The bigger, more complicated and activist the federal government, the more affected interests mobilize. Columnist Robert Samuelson calls Obama's facilitation of government growth a "gift for K Street" and deems the president's promise to banish special interests from the political arena as "doomed to fail" because "the only way to eliminate lobbying and special interests is to eliminate government."...The Golden Age of Lobbying, Gary Andres, Weekly Standard, 5/28/2009

The key difference between a lobbyist for say, AT&T, and another for ACORN, the community organizer's trade organization, is that ACORN does not have to meet federal reporting standards. They can spend any amount of money to try to convince Congress to legislate on their behalf, wonderfully convenient for ACORN, as they have been provided hundreds of milllions of dollars by Congress under the G.I.F.T. Act of 2008. What is the effect?

It's transparent. Net producers, the commercial companies that produce goods and services that keep us employed, clothed, fed, housed, healed and entertained, are restrained, while net takers, organizations that received tax monies, are given a free rein. It appears that the Democrats in this, as in the rest of their so-called program, are unaware of the golden goose's role in providing tax money. The more the private economy is damaged by taxes and other restraints on profitability, the less tax money there will be for the Democrats' favorite constituents. This is a prescription for national economic suicide.

Luther