Former Trump Officials Are Supposed to Avoid Lobbying. Except 33 Haven’t

https://www.propublica.org/article/the-lobbying-swamp-is-flourishing-in-trumps-washington

It was one of the things he did at the beginning that I thought might be a good indication that he would at least try to drain the swamp.

Evidently Donnie is good at one thing above all else. Lying.

 

So not draining the swamp, just switching them out for more corrupt models.

I’m sure the trumpets will be along shortly to switch the topic to Obama

 

How about keeping the topic where is belongs. I do appreciate you starting off by admitting that the previous administrations were corrupt. I agree. Im not sure if this is "more corrupt" but it is at least "as corrupt".

I wonder how things would change if all meetings between politicians and lobbyists were broadcast live.

 

Change the laws and close the loopholes.

 

This is something that has to be done Congressionally, and it's something I'm willing to do. Lobbyists violate the will of the American People and thus rob us of our representation.

 

It’s tough. Do we really want lobbyists for cancer research to disappear? Lobbyists for weed legalization? There are more lobbyists than we realize for a wide ranging amount of topics. Theoretically, they are arguing for the will of some people, and in some cases, the majority(who doesn’t want cancer research? Majority wants weed legalized, etc) of people.

 

Drain the swamp? lmao Trump added a quite a few cesspools and lots of sewers.

 

I disagree.

What is wrong with a group of people with a similar interest reaching out to congress?

That is all that lobbying essentially is you know.

If you get enough people, like AARP together then you have a substantial voting block and that ensures your representative will more than likely have to pay attention to your needs.

At it's core there is nothing more American than lobbying congress.

 

Sounds like a union right? Squash the **** out them like a bug!

 

Like Eric Holder and Hillary Clinton? Some real straight shooters?

 

Except there are no needs for unions anymore, all of their needs are met by federal laws.

They only exist as a political wing of the democratic party by FORCING employees to join their ranks or they withhold employment from them.

 

Not a Trumpet, but Obama, and all those who came before him, are highly relevant here.

Pretending or suggesting that massive criminal corruption in our government (including all branches) began with Trump is ludicrous.

But speaking of Obama, it's interesting to note who wrote the criminally disastrous ACA.

Our government is shot through with massive criminal conduct and oligarchic control.

Twas EVER thus.

 

Sorry, but what exactly have I lied about?

 

If a person takes a pledge then s/he should honor it. A loophole around that pledge violates the spirit of the pledge and makes it wrong.

 

Same ****, different day. Trump and his staff are just like every other political staff. Trump ain't nothing special.

 

You mean they are following the laws Congress and democrats passed? Go figure.

 

Bigger fan of the letter of the law vs the spirit?

Unfortunate.

 

I don't necessarily have a problem with the concept of lobbying. Voting doesn't necessarily help push specific issues and there are a lot of issues that simply can't make the campaign trail.

My problem is when you have a revolving door between the Govt and then Lobbying for industries creating way to cozy a relationship. Wall Street is one of the worst, with individuals working in the Treasury and pushing for policies so that when they are done working for the Govt, they can go to the financial Industry and benefit from those self same laws/policies.

There had to be an arm's length between the two or the potential for corruption can become to great for the system to handle.

 

You don't seem to realize that for every lobby working those institutions there are opposite lobbies opposing them.

The lobbyist groups are not all on one side here you know.

The NRA and AARP, the two biggest lobbies, are usually pushing completely opposite agenda's.

Here is the thing with lobbying, which most of you probably do not know, is that it really isn't as effective as you think it is. Lobbying only works on specific people who are already inclined to your viewpoint, it rarely, if ever, changes anyone from one side of the aisle to the other.

What they use lobbying for is to push specific agenda items that representatives may not have on their radar yet.

For instance, you will probably never see the NRA hanging out around Pelosi's office because it's pointless to them and a waste of time.

You guys seem to think that lobbyists just show up with bags of cash and whoever has the most get whatever they want.

It does not work like that at all.

 

I never said it was like that at all. According to Statista, there were 12k registered lobbiests in 2018. This is talking about 33. Not exactly a massive number.

But, it's concerning when your told one thing, and then you find out it wasnt as cut and dried as it was presented.

I'm glad the law is in place, but the loopholes need to be closed.

 

That's fine.

I'm sure Trump was not aware of the legal loopholes when he did this so this isn't on him at all.

We will see if he addresses it.

 

I'm definitely willing to give the benefit of the doubt as I don't really know what level of knowledge of the intricacies of the laws the POTUS signs (though, if he didn't know, that shows a real disconnect between the POTUS and the Congress who wrote and passed the law to him which is troubling at least)

Now that its out though, his response will be telling.

 

Another Trump lie. Go figure.

 

Uh Huh...since it's one of his campaign promise, perhaps he SHOULD HAVE KNOWN about it or tried to study up on it instead of spending his time watching TV and on social media.

 

Good luck getting congress to curb lobbyists. It's a gravy train for them, plus politicians often become lobbyists after they leave office. Paul Ryan for example.