Have you ever wished you could profit from all the lobbying and
influence peddling going on in Washington?
Well, now you can. Read on for more details.
It seems like every time you pick up a newspaper, somebody else
is making millions in Washington — the corporations, the unions,
the environmentalists, you name it. If it’s not the Clintons
selling nights in the Lincoln Bedroom, it’s Tom DeLay’s K Street
Project demanding that all the associations in town hire Republican
lobbyists.
Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff raised more than $5 million in
six years, mostly from Indian tribes, and handed out lavishly
around town — to Republican senator Conrad Burns and Democratic
congressman Patrick Kennedy and a host of other recipients. A
million dollars went to Republican committees and $750,000 to
Democratic committees. Some of the rest paid for golf trips to
Scotland, luxury boxes at hockey games, private planes, and lavish
salaries for lobbyists.
Yes, there’s a lot of money sloshing around Washington. Federal
spending is up 33 percent in five years, to an unimaginable $2.6
trillion. People will pay a lot of money to get their hands on that
kind of money, and that’s where the lobbyists come in.
As political scientist John J. Pitney, Jr. said about Rep. Randy
“Duke” Cunningham, who recently resigned from Congress and admitted
to taking $2.4 million in bribes: “It’s amazing that somebody in
Congress that long could be that stupid…. If he wanted to make a
ton of money, all he needed to do was retire from Congress and
become a lobbyist.”
But you’re not a congressman. So how can you get in on these
deals? We’re getting there.
Some say high tech is coming back, or health care is the new
growth area. But look at the growth in government.
As resources are pulled from around the country to the capital,
Washington is thriving. Real estate prices have risen 89 percent in
five years. Three of the four richest counties in America are
Washington suburbs. Only two states had faster income growth last
year than Washington, D.C.
Most of the federal government’s activity involves taking money
from some people, giving it to others, and keeping a big chunk here
in Washington as a handling fee.
Every business and interest group in society has an office in
Washington devoted to getting some of that $2.5 trillion federal
budget for itself — senior citizens, farmers, veterans, teachers,
social workers, oil companies, bee keepers, labor unions, you name
it. Walk down K Street, the heart of Washington’s lobbying
industry, and look at the directory in any office building. They’re
all full of lobbyists and associations that are in Washington for
one reason: because that’s where the money is.
The number of registered lobbying firms is up from 1,701 to
2,060 in the past six years. The number of companies with lobbyists
is up 58 percent in the same period. And the amount of money
officially spent by lobbyists has risen from $1.4 billion to $2.1
billion a year.
So how can you get in on this growth industry? Well, that’s the
good news.
A venture capitalist named Kenneth P. Ducey Jr. is trying to buy
up some of those 2,000 lobbying firms and take them public. That
means you could buy stock in a lobbying firm. And the next time you
pick up the paper and read about congressmen being flown to Hawaii
or Scotland, or free liquor at Capitol Hill receptions, you can
know that your investment is hard at work creating a new tariff or
entitlement or tax or subsidy for some special interest.
Sure, the taxpayers pay for all that. But you’ll be on the
inside, profiting from every subsidy and regulation as Washington’s
parasite economy grows and grows. Every man a king? Not likely. But
now every man can be a lobbyist, or at least get a piece of the
action.
