Posted on 04/04/2007 2:23:01 PM PDT by neverdem
Between the two party primaries and the general election, spending on the 2008 presidential race likely will exceed $1.5 billion (it topped $1 billion for the first time in 2004).
Toss in congressional elections, and it's likely that total spending for control of the federal government in 2008 will top $5 billion (it was just under $4 billion in 2004). That doesn't include state and local races, nor does it include the money spent on lobbying, which topped $2 billion in 2004, a 35 percent jump from 2001.
I tend to agree with many of the editorial boards and campaign reformers troubled by the escalation in the money we spend on federal elections. Unfortunately, campaign finance reformers (and lobbying reformers) seem to be troubled for all the wrong reasons.
The problem with increasing amounts of money spent on lobbying and politics isn't that Americans are spending more and more money to buy some influence in Washington; the problem is that we're giving Washington more and more influence to sell.
Nice as it may be to think otherwise, individuals, advocacy groups and corporations that give to political campaigns don't do so out of patriotism or civic pride. They donate because they hope to get something in return. It's not a gift, it's an investment.
That's true of the mega-corporation that spends money to lobby the way regulations are written, it's true of the real estate developer hoping to get an earmark for a bridge to the...
--SNIP--
The Washington Post's regulatory reporter Cindy Skrzycki opens her excellent book "The Regulators" with a telling anecdote about how competing interest groups fought and scrapped with federal bureaucrats over what the official circumference of the holes in a block of Swiss cheese ought be in order for it to be lawfully called "Swiss cheese."
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Well now we can see who the real beneficiaries of McCain Feingold are. How much of the $5 bil goes to media companies?
The votes of our elected officals (thieves) is always fopr sale.
Herd a guy on TV explain how the drug companies did not want a goverment agency to be able to bargin for better price on drugs. Our elected officals, ever mindful of the service they were elected to perform for the voters, found it much more of a benifit to themselves to sell thjeir vote to the highest bidder and screw the voters if it pays more from the drug company.
The whole time this guy was talking about selling votes he was smiling as if there was no problem.
Washington is becoming the sewer of America with thieves, drunks, liers and arrogant a-hole infesting our nations capital.
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