In through the out door: how lobbyists rule Congress | Pratap Chatterjee

The revolving door between industry and Capitol Hill lobbying generous funding makes K Street, the real center of power

Each week, groups of young people aged 14 and removed the flashing metro Washington on school trips to visit the conference rooms U. S. on Capitol Hill. They come to see how their elected officials govern "the land of the free and home of the brave" in the real version of what they studied in their civics textbooks.

Unfortunately, each student will have the wrong place. The real power in Washington, the Capitol is not even in the White House, but a few blocks north on the road much less exciting any modern office buildings known as the K Street. In fact, K Street has become a euphemism for the world of lobbying. According to a new study just published LegiStorm, a watchdog group in Washington, there are 11,700 registered lobbyists in Washington, DC - nearly one for each of the 14,000 employees working in Congress

"You can tell your story if you put your foot in the door," a pressure group with the name of William Chasey said both the filmmaker Michael Moore in 1994. "And if you already have a foot in the door which makes it much easier."

• for the paltry sum of $ 5000, Chasey agreed to try to convince Congress to appoint a day in the year after "TV Nation" - the name of Moore's satirical news program. Not only was able to present a Bill Chasey, which even a Republican (Howard Coble of North Carolina) to sponsor. Moore got a good deal. Perhaps the most outrageous operation was K Street lobbyist Jack Abramoff, who charged six Indian tribes $ 85 million between 1995 and 2004 to lobby on behalf of their casinos, as he accepted money from the interest of others to do otherwise.
More than one member of Congress has accepted lavish gifts from lobbyists - despite some game of Tom DeLay of Texas. In 2006, two groups - Campaign for America's future and Action Fund public campaign - shot a TV spot to highlight the amount of delay had been: "Forty-eight trips to golf resorts, 100 flights to onboard business jets, 200 nights in the world by naming popular resorts and hotels. One million dollars of Russian tycoons to influence their vote, apparently, "the leader intones.

In a 2005 report by Public Citizen, "The Journey of K Street Congress," the control group estimates that over four in ten members of Congress went to work in the street after K left elected. Six years later, history has not really changed. In the past decade, 393 members of Congress have been working on K Street to lobby their former colleagues, according to LegiStorm. In total, some 5400 representatives Congress have worked in the lobbying over the same period of time. And the revolving door works both ways - Today, 605 former lobbyists working for members of Congress

There is a very simple reason - there are a lot of money involved. Last year, those lobbyists have spent a tremendous amount of 3.5 billion, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. Over the past 13 years, one group - the Chamber of Commerce of U. S. - Spent more than $ 750 million trying to push their agenda in Congress

In 1863, Abraham Lincoln invoked the idea of ??a "government of the people by the people and for the people" as its vision for the country, in his famous Gettysburg Address. A century later, the new study suggests that LegiStorm Washington became a government lobbyist, lobbyists, special interest groups. But you will not realize that in a book of civic education. Pressure groups will ensure that.

Find best price for : --Congress----Lincoln----Abraham----Public----DeLay----Moore----Michael----Chasey----William----Washington--