LOBBYISTS TWIST INFORMATION
“We know that the representatives of business, given their
money,
can meet with more policymakers than other interest groups, but what happens
when they do? We also know from [Lee] Drutman that the amply
financed staffs of lobbyists can provide policymakers a great deal
of expertise, much of which may be biased toward business.
But we are offered few examples of how that information is
twisted to favor clients. We are given almost no examples of
behind-the-scenes horsetrading, arm twisting, or hints of
campaign contributions in return for helpful legislation. Just how,
for example, did the financial community, whose influence many
policymakers such as Elizabeth Warren, decry, weaken the Dodd-Frank
can meet with more policymakers than other interest groups, but what happens
when they do? We also know from [Lee] Drutman that the amply
financed staffs of lobbyists can provide policymakers a great deal
of expertise, much of which may be biased toward business.
But we are offered few examples of how that information is
twisted to favor clients. We are given almost no examples of
behind-the-scenes horsetrading, arm twisting, or hints of
campaign contributions in return for helpful legislation. Just how,
for example, did the financial community, whose influence many
policymakers such as Elizabeth Warren, decry, weaken the Dodd-Frank
reform proposals? We learn next to nothing
firsthand about how a
business
may propose a new plant in a
congressman’s district in
return for a tax break, or threaten to move a plant to another state if
one is canceled.”
return for a tax break, or threaten to move a plant to another state if
one is canceled.”
Jeff Madrick, “How the Lobbyists Win in Washington,” April
7, 2016, in The New York Review, a review of Lee Drutman’ The
Business of America Is Lobbying: How Corporations Became Politicized and
Politics Became More Corporate, April 7, 2016, pp: 50-52.
