Blog - Joyful Curmudgeon - Blog

Too Many Lobbyists? - 6 Mar 2006

I heard on a recent news program that in Washington, D.C. there are 30,000 elected officials, including their staff, and 32,000 registered lobbyists. Imagine that! Lobbyists outnumbering the legislators! Now, that’s a lot of “spin.” It was also mentioned that some of the elected officials stay in Washington to become lobbyists.

When you think of all the money that special interests pay these lobbyists, you realize that the government works on spin and money. It’s also obvious that they live by The Golden Rule: Those who have the gold, rule.

For example, the powerful meat and dairy industries receive “corporate welfare” in the form of subsidies for the grains grown to be fed to animals to be slaughtered, while veganic and organic farmers growing crops for human consumption do not receive such aid.

Another example is the way the government leases public lands for grazing at far less than the going rate in the private sector.

And what about the serious problem of water pollution stemming from factory farms?

As long as the demand for the products of these animal exploiters and polluters continues, the situation will only get worse, because the industries will continue to hire spin-doctors to lobby for their unethical positions before Congress.
 

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