Jeb Bush announces plan to cut lobbying in Washington DC - ex Congressmen cannot legally lobby up to
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[quote]Jeb Bush outlined on Monday a sweeping and detailed plan to rein in the size of the federal government and to curb the influence of the lobbyists who live off it, calling for a 10 percent reduction in workers, an immediate hiring freeze, a constitutional amendment requiring a balanced budget and[B] a six-year waiting period before members of Congress can become lobbyists.[/B]
Invoking his record as a budget watchdog during his time as Florida’s governor, Mr. Bush vowed to replicate that approach during his first term as president if the 2016 election sends him to Washington, which he held up as a model of unyielding dysfunction.
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Mr. Bush took direct aim at K Street, Washington’s collection of lobbying firms that have long employed former lawmakers to do the bidding of major corporations.
He [B]proposed heightened levels of disclosure that would require members of Congress to report every meeting with a lobbyist on a weekly basis.[/B] The information would be posted on congressional websites.
Mr. Bush has been critical of the lobbying culture, regularly repeating an anti-Washington message during his fledgling presidential campaign. But he also has tapped the fund-raising potential of the K Street crowd, bringing in millions of dollars for his “super PAC” from Washington lobbyists, political operatives, lawyers and business leaders.
His most eyebrow-raising plan: [B]requiring an inflexible six-year ban on lobbying for departing members of Congress. Currently, departing House members must observe a “cooling-off period” of a year before lobbying on Capitol Hill, and departing senators must wait two years.[/B]
[B]“We need to help politicians to rediscover life outside of Washington,” Mr. Bush said.[/B] “Which — who knows? — might even be a pleasant surprise for them.”
He said he was not interested in making friends with Washington’s power brokers, a fact that seemed clear from his proposal to encourage members of Congress to show up for votes.[/quote]
[url]http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/21/us/politics/jeb-bush-promises-to-curb-lobbying-and-cut-size-of-government.html[/url]
That's a plan I could get behind if I weren't against some of his other proposals.
As appealing as this idea is, I'd rather do away with lobbying entirely.
Plus, I really don't like Jeb's other ideas.
For a second Jeb almost had me there.
Then I remembered he's a mouth breather.
"Lobbying is bad but I still want politicians to get bribed while in office"
[QUOTE=bitches;48254417]"Lobbying is bad but I still want politicians to get bribed while in office"[/QUOTE]
What?
They should make it where lobbying funds are investigated. I'm concerned that foreign entities may be trying to influence American policy simply by funding lobbyist in the US who will promote their agenda.
[QUOTE=cqbcat;48254826]They should make it where lobbying funds are investigated. I'm concerned that foreign entities may be trying to influence American policy simply by funding lobbyist in the US who will promote their agenda.[/QUOTE]
For example, I'm sure Israel is pumping some funding into War-Hawk candidates.
It's unrealistic to try to get rid of lobbying altogether but this seems like a good compromise. However, Bush has to actually do what he promises.
The thing is, when we say "Lobbying", we usually mean corporate-backed lobby. However, the term also engrosses lobby as done by social groups and individuals, as it's originally intended. So you can't just outright ban lobbying as a whole, since that's sorta one of the important parts upon which US democracy is based around - being able to introduce ideas to your representatives, to try to improve lives of people.
Corporate Lobbying is the problem, and should be engaged as such, in direct form, rather than through an otherwise generic term. In any way, this is a step in right direction, but it's not enough.
Need to ban PACs and super PACS, lobbying in itself isn't bad. It is the money and corporations that corrupt.
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