Lobbying firms have not always been so prevalent in the government, but lately they have taken on a growing role. Corporations actually now attribute approximately 2.6 billion dollars every year to lobbying expenditures. Corporate lobbying now has a bigger budget than the budgets of the Senate and House combined, and this has been the case since the early 2000. The biggest corporations in the United States have many lobbyists presenting them and their interests, which has resulted in the formation of many of these firms just to serve this particular area of interest of these clients.
Many people would not know that business has taken such a prevalent role in American politics, but the truth is that it has. Lobbying has taking on a role that would not have even been expected several decades ago. It was once a small force, and it is now ubiquitous and becoming more and more proactive as time goes on. This is actually one of the most important political transformations that has taken place in the United States within the last four decades.
The increasing prevalence of lobbying has completely changed how corporations in the United States interact with their government. They are not trying to keep the government out of their businesses, as they did for many years, but they are now bringing the government in as a collaborator in order to see what the United States government is able to do for them and their bottom line.
Over the past few decades, lobbyists have become more visionary in terms of their goals. They have actually originated many proposals that turned into laws, such as Medicare Part D, a prescription drug benefit that was actually dreamed up by industry lobbyists who were associated with pharmaceutical companies.
Essentially, corporations use the tactic of lobbying in order to seek changes in government policy that will be favorable to them and their bottom line. While it was once the case that they would simply have a few people lobbying, there are now entire lobbying firms that take care of this need that corporations have. These firms can be very successful too, bringing in a lot of money for what they do. It has actually become an industry all its own.
Many people do not like this increased role that lobbyists have in the United States government. However, this is how trends have shifted. If the people want to reduce the power of lobbying firms on the laws that are passed, there are a few things they can do, such as invest more in the government, so that leading policy makers will have resources to bring in experts staff and not have to rely so much on lobbyists. Additionally, they can work to support organizations that advocate for positions that are not so well-resourced. Before doing any of this, however, people should understand just how influential lobbying has become in the modern US government.
Source:
www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2015/04/how-corporate-lobbyists-conquered-american-democracy/390822/
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