Lobbyists

[Lemon law]

The other thing to point out that public interests groups lobby also, but are still mostly buried under the greater weight of corporate money.

 

[fskimospy]

Originally posted by: BoberFett

But when someone like Ron Paul, agree with him or not, gets real grassroots support he's laughed at and you and the rest of the Democrats and Republicans vote for Obama and McCain and their lobbyist filled coffers.

You are to blame.

Ron Paul wasn't laughed at so much as his supporters were. They mistook large support on internet message boards for some sort of real support in the outside world. Ron Paul's views were such that he never had a chance of getting elected no matter how much cash he had.

 

[imported_inspire]

Originally posted by: Craig234

Originally posted by: KMFJD

What would be the consequences of a ban on all forms of government lobbying? Would it be a bad or a good thing?

When Reagan took office, there were a few hundred lobbyists. Today, over 35,000 IIRC.

I think it'd be a good thing to make other reforms more than ban lobbyists.

If they're just banned, they find new ways to do the same thing, and all kinds of bad behavior like the 'revolving doors' go on.

We need to create a bigger barrier between serving in the government and the private areas the government can benefit IMO, and limit corporate money in politics

Unless we want a system where democracy is a joke and the corporate interests who stand to make a fortune buy the politicians they want to give them what they want..

Again, I'm agreeing w/ Craig.... I feel like I'm in the twilight zone.

 

[dmcowen674]

Lobbying is a form of Church and should be banned under the Constitution.

 

[LunarRay]

Originally posted by: rudder

Originally posted by: LunarRay

Originally posted by: rudder
Accountability and the ability for the common peon to research the money trail. All these laws in place such as you can't write that if you accept payments because of paypal that you will charge an extra 3% over a cash payment. Paypal charges 3% for the transaction and because some senator got an all expense paid trip to hedonism resort in jamaica... I can't charge and extra 3% to cover those fees. It's crazy I tell you.

Stupid crap like this gets buried in some bill that no one reads... the lobbyists spend the $$$ so this happens.

That 3$ is the reason Paypal provides the service. It enables commerce to flow. They are the conduit between you and someother entity through which $ must flow.
IF all of Congress went to Jamaica it is fine by me so long as it was a legal transaction.

btw, you can recoup your 3$ or % by increasing your price but if that exceeds your competition, well... Market forces at work.

I understand the purpose of the fee. My point is that if you go to the For Sale forum here and ask for a 3% differential.. your thread will get locked. Sure I can raise the price of my for sale item... but can you give me one other reason why I can't charge the 3% for credit transaction other than a credit card lobbyists got this to be a law?

I am using this as an example. There is a lot of other nitpicky crap that congressman get paid a lot of money to put into law. These serve no other purpose than to help a company's bottom line.

Look at the satellite/cable wars. Lobbyists in some states are pushing for extra taxes to be levied on satellite programming. Do you suppose the cable company lobbyists are behind this or some concerned citizen who feels it is simply a good idea?

Not sure if Cable Companies are regulated by any government body regarding their product pricing but do know that the taxes added represent a Revenue flow that ought to be similar for similar products. I'd imagine if Cable saw that Satellite had a competitive advantage regarding the taxing amount they'd seek to have their's reduced or the Satellite folks' increased and would use their lobby efforts to do this. Without question I'd agree that any for-profit company has as its primary objective profit and would do what ever it could do to increase that within the law.

To respond to your first para above, I'd say that all sellers using credit cards as the means to facilitate transactions either have a separate line item called 'handling' or 'shipping and handling' or have built into the price these factors. You should be able to do that as well. I have no idea why a thread would be locked because you'd ask for the '3%' to be factored in or out of a transaction. It could be that the Mods know that that thread will be filled with folks focusing on the 3% and wasting bandwidth as trolls do.

 

[Vette73]

Originally posted by: Craig234

Originally posted by: KMFJD

What would be the consequences of a ban on all forms of government lobbying? Would it be a bad or a good thing?

When Reagan took office, there were a few hundred lobbyists. Today, over 35,000 IIRC.

I think it'd be a good thing to make other reforms more than ban lobbyists.

If they're just banned, they find new ways to do the same thing, and all kinds of bad behavior like the 'revolving doors' go on.

We need to create a bigger barrier between serving in the government and the private areas the government can benefit IMO, and limit corporate money in politics

Unless we want a system where democracy is a joke and the corporate interests who stand to make a fortune buy the politicians they want to give them what they want..

Even the Agencies in the Fed Gov has lobbyist now. I just hired one for our group but we have others as well.