Lobbying; How and Why

Lobbying has a role that is good and worthy. It is an effort to educate lawmakers so they do no unintended harm to something of value. The education is provided by an area of interest, let’s say an industry, technology, or an academic field that’s emerging from research roots.

An example of this: From 1965 to the present I have been attached as a member or an employee or consultant to the credit union movement. Most people would think of credit unions as financial institutions, something like a bank; but they are much different than that.. Credit unions are actually financial cooperatives and they have always served people of modest means. Over the years those ‘means’ grew to significantly to include middle and upper middle class families.  Credit unions are usually small non-profits and they cannot be lumped in with banking enterprises without being damaged.

The CU movement thus developed an education program to inform legislators and congressmen (both the Senate and House of Representatives). Over the years these efforts have placed credit union lobbying programs in the top ten most effective lobbying programs as determined by Congress itself. Along the way the education program has partnered with law makers in solving problems before they fully emerged, or solved existing problems while remaining positive within the entire financial services industry. Balance was maintained.

So, in summary, lobbying is a good thing if the ends are honorable and fair.

Lobbying earned a bad reputation, however, by following dishonorable objectives, primarily to influence legislation for special interests outcomes at the expense of the general population. Here are a few quick references:

·         Defense industry hires retiring military brass then using them as ‘in’ people to lobby congress for contracts and weapon systems that served the interest of the manufacturers rather than the broad needs of the nation’s defense capabilities

·         Revolving door relationships between congressional staffers or elected officials and specific industry lobbying groups solely for maximizing special interest influences (consider banking, investment brokerages, auto manufacturers, health insurance companies, etc.)

·         Political lobbying for ideologies; help raise campaign funds for elected officials in exchange for legislation on pet theories and political concepts

·         Political lobbying for religious issues or theologies; this is a much slippery slope than mere ideology. This arena involves national adoption of religious values by way of legislation. Here we include abortion laws, education curriculum mandates, inclusion of creationism versus evolution as educational precept, and more.

Along the way lobbying built on its bad boy image. Extremes were achieved and we note these results:

• Deficit spending labeled as bad; never mind it is a legitimate policy tool for managing the economy for productive ends; yes it can be overused; but it is not inherently bad. One must understand the field of economic theory before bad mouthing specific actions.
• Gay marriage debate is another non-issue that has much lobbying horsepower lined up against the concept. This is a religious tenet and not subject to legislative control other than wedding licenses
• Entitlement programs cast as our bane. Nonsense! Social Security and Medicare are programs that deliver much needed stability and quality of life to citizens who have paid for these programs through payroll taxes. They are due this form of respect. The trust funds for each of these programs have been raided by congress to pay for other things having nothing to do with Social Security or Medicare. To suggest that they are the reason for our deficit spending is an empty canard. If Congress would repay its debts to these trust funds and pay a reasonable return on the funds 'borrowed' both trust funds would be funded well into the future
• Defense budget as untouchable; to attempt to manage it properly is labeled treasonous or unpatriotic. Nonsense again! This is pure ideologies and special interest positioning.

These examples extend endlessly through each and every topic of discussion we can possibly think of. The enormity of influence peddling and manipulation has made us all circumspect of lobbyists. Too bad that the good they can do gets lost.

It has always seemed odd to me that the vast investment our country has made in education at all levels is not used more fruitfully to understand issues and development of solutions. If lawmakers developed a disciplined method to use educational institutions for research and advice, the performance of government might be enhanced greatly. Instead we ignore the trillions of dollars invested in educational research and rely on the self-serving and greedy lobbyists for input that is easily suspect.

How can we put a stop to this? Any ideas?

November 29, 2011