Lobbying - Helps Corporations, Job security for Legislators, and a Curse for Common people
Socio Economic Reform
America’s political landscape, both the Democratic and Republicans alike, are manipulated by the DC lobbying firms funded by the Social media companies, Arms manufacturers, Pharmaceuticals, and Oil and Gas Industries. These people give millions and billions as political contributions to influence the Government’s policies and change them in their favor. This way they can continue to divide us as a society to make profits, make and sell arms all around the world so that people can kill each other, make drugs that only the wealthy and insured can afford, and keep us dependent on Fossil fuels and pollute this earth. I am talking about the companies like Facebook, Amazon, Raytheon, Koch Industries and, all the Big Pharmas. So when you see their executives are grilled by Congress, do not get carried away. These are just staged shows to give you the impression that they are hard against these companies. Please check the opensecrets.org link below to see how much money these organizations are spending to influence government policies. These are the numbers from Opensecrets , Facebook - $14 million, Amazon - $15 million, Raytheon- $12 million, Lockheed- $11 million, Big Pharma - $22 Million, Koch - 8 Million, Google - 9 Million. They use Lobbyists who work tirelessly to influence, change or amend the political decisions using their personal and professional connections to their clientele’s best interest. Lobbyists make huge salaries in turn for making this ethical bribery possible. The Opensecrets link below shows the top lobbying spenders who influence government policies.
https://www.opensecrets.org/federal-lobbying/top-spenders
Please see the open secrets link below to see the top recipients in government.
https://www.opensecrets.org/federal-lobbying/top-recipients
By employing them as lobbyists, Corporations provide an opportunity for many Politicians including former Senators, representatives, and their families a very good economic stability even after their term ends. In return, They can use personal or professional connections to get things done to protect the interests of the corporations and Billionaires. Please see the Opensecrets link below which shows the list of former senators and representatives who work as lobbyists. There are around 500 former members of Senate and House working as lobbyists, Democrats and Republicans!
https://www.opensecrets.org/revolving/top.php?display=Z
Quoting Opensecrets "While officials in the executive branch, Congress and senior congressional staffers spin in and out of the private and public sectors, so too does privilege, power, access and, of course, money." This is a revolving door where former federal employees get hired into jobs as lobbyists, consultants, and strategists, and also former lobbyists can get hired into government careers."
Politicians have their kids also hold lucrative lobbying positions so that they can get paid in millions without causing any major ethics violations. All legal.
I am talking about all this to show you how the current government policies are influenced heavily by the lobbyists representing corporations and other governments against the interest of what’s good for a common man in this country. This needs to end and that is where the socio-economic reform should start. Lobbying only benefits rich corporations and their owners, politicians, and their families. If you want this country to be successful, we must adopt the innovations in Manufacturing, invest more in smart agriculture, invest in high-speed low-cost transportation, and use Clean energy alternatives to power everything. Stop Making arms and selling Fighter jets, missiles, and guns that kill innocent people around the world. That’s blood money and there is no future in that. Do you know who is the largest Exporter of Arms in the world? It’s our country. The United States of America. Now you know why these arms companies are paying so much lobbying money on political contributions correct? It is to keep or change the foreign policies in their favor. Please check the Statista Link below which shows the United States leading in Global Arms exports and other countries which follow the US.
Statista Graph shows United States leading in Global Arms exports
And a good percentage of Arms are sold to countries in the middle east like Saudi Arabia. Between 2016 and 2020, we agreed to sell $64 Billion in arms sales to Saudi. And the Saudi’s are using all these arms on their poor neighboring country, Yemen, even carpet-bombing civilian neighborhoods killing thousands, 25% of these Kids. As per the BBC report below “In December 2020, it reported that the conflict had caused an estimated 233,000 deaths in Yemen, including 131,000 from indirect causes such as lack of food, health services, and infrastructure.”
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-29319423
Countries and governments have lobbying firms too. For example, Saudi Arabia pays millions of Dollars to the lobbying firms in the US to cool down anyone who gets upset with the atrocities they are doing in Yemen or the killing of a Washington Post Journalist, Jamal Khashoggi. After Jamal Khashoggi’s killing in 2018, Biden strongly spoke against the Saudi regime and their ruthless leaders and affirmed how tough he is going to be against them once he becomes president. As a candidate, President Biden promised to end American support for the Saudi war in Yemen. But now Biden administration is going to sell $600 million worth Missiles this year to Saudi to use in Yemen. Please see the Politico news link below on that
https://www.politico.com/news/2021/12/07/senate-biden-saudi-arabia-523915
What made him change his mind to sell $600 million missiles to them? Did the Saudi lobbyists have any hand in changing his policy on selling Arms to them again? Or was in done in Raytheon’s interest who makes those missiles and launchers? This is an example where lobbying can change policies not only for US corporations but for other countries as well.
by Hari Ramachandran