43 percent! Holy crap.
[quote=“Politico”]A study done in the post-Watergate era estimated that only 3 percent to 10 percent of retiring members of Congress became lobbyists.
But, from 1998 to 2004, 283 retired lawmakers became lobbyists — a whopping 43 percent of all retiring members, according to a study done by Public Citizen, a nonpartisan watchdog group.[/quote]
It’s no wonder special interests rule.
I’m not surprised. That’s where all the $$ is. It’s just one of the side affects of having a government that’s willing to dive into the minutiae of regulating all kinds of industries.
Exactly.
And the presciption generally given on the left for the cooption of government by special interests? … More influence for government regulators over the industries in which their paymasters operate, more power for government officials to do favors for those who fund their campaigns.
“You don’t understand…” they explain, “…it’s only the bad party that does this. If only we elect the good people to office then this won’t happen. It’s not the fact that power corrupts as a basic fault of human nature – it’s that we have just been giving this power to the wrong (i.e. corruptable) people. Trust us. Our people are not susceptible to such base motivations. Sincerely! Honestly! Really! Zhende! No Kidding! Give government officials more power, but give it to our candidates, and we promise they will use it exclusively for the public good!” 
Fair enough. Also my #1 problem with free trade pacts. If it were really free trade, rather than corporate trade, those documents would be something like 10 pages long.