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At Least 130 Congressional Staffers Are Former Lobbyists, Study Finds

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Up to 130 of 990 congressional chiefs of staff and legislative directors are former lobbyists, and many of them worked a number of lobbying jobs before moving to Capitol Hill, according to a study out Wednesday.

Researchers for The Center for Responsive Politics and Remapping Debate found the majority of those staffers lobbied for corporations or trade organizations.

The ex-lobbyists work for Republicans and Democrats in about equal number.

CRP's executive director, Sheila Krumholz, said the relationships of Washington insiders who make the jump from representing special interests to working on behalf of the public's interest "deserve continued scrutiny."

CRP and Remapping Debate have created an interactive chart that tracks the lobbying history of chiefs of staffs and legislative directors. View it here.
Filed Under: Congress, Lobbying

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mullermugs32

Ban lobbiests

March 03 2011 at 11:49 AM Report abuse +1 rate up rate down Reply
jerome

Bernie Madoff is in prison for life for running a multi-billion dollar Ponzi and Money Laundering Scheme that bilked a few hundred investors. And, yet, we have a U.S. Congress and Executive Branch of government that runs a Money Laundering and Ponzi Scheme dealing with Trillions of dollars where Lobbyists Lobby and Purchase Congressmen/women and Presidents who do the Bidding of the Lobbyists and the Special Interests They Represent, and these scoundrels are fleecing the entire country, not just a few hundred that Madoff cheated. Our Congress members are bought and paid for by Lobbyists who use Funds to Purchase Members of Congress and then the Congressional Members then Funnel Billions to the Firms or Groups that the Lobbyists Represent, so what is really happening is that the Lobbyists Are Using Our Tax Dollars which Their Firms and Special Interest Groups Receive From Congressional or Executive Actions to in turn Buy Our Elected Politicians Over and Over. This scheme is simply Money Laundering where the Elected Officials Enrich Themselves Legally Through Lobbyist Contributions and the Money The Lobbyists Use is some of the Same Money that Congress has Already Funneled to the Companies or Special Interest Groups that the Lobbyists Represent.

A small example of how this works follows. In 2006, Barack Obama was elected to the U.S. Senate in an election that was, by all accounts, fraudulently won by Obama, but that's another story. At the time Obama was elected to the U.S. Senate, Mooch-Elle Obama had a No-Show Job at a a supposedly Non-Profit Hospital in Chicago where she was receiving a salary of about $125 thousand a year for her no-show job. After Obama was in the U.S. Senate, he arranged a multi-million dollar grant to go to the Non-Profit Hospital in Chicago where Mooch-Elle had the No-Show Job, and shortly afterward, Mooch-Elle began receiving an additional 200 thousand dollar salary for her No-Show Job, bringing her salary to a whopping $325 thousand a year for a job she never had to show up for. This is how our Government Works From The Top Down and The Bottom Up, and if you and I were to try a Ponzi Scheme or Money Laundering Operation such as this, we would wind up in jail. The only folks who can get by with this sort of scheme on a grand scale is the U.S. Congress.

So, of course, given this scheme, the lobbyists would naturally be hired to work for congressional leaders. What better way to Eat All The Chickens than to Put The Foxes Inside The Hen Houses to Oversee the Slaughter?? While these lobbyists may appear to be working for the Congressmen/women, they are really working from the Inside For Their Bosses Outside of Government and Receiving A Government Check as well as Money From the Corporations or Other Special Interest Groups That They Represented before being Hired By Congressional Leaders, and I am sure that the folks who the Lobbyists Work For, arrange it with the congressional members to Place Their Moles.

March 03 2011 at 7:48 AM Report abuse +3 rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to jerome's comment
rentthis

Excellent post. A+

March 03 2011 at 10:59 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
dporshab

We call bribes in other countries corruption, here we call them lobbyists

March 02 2011 at 10:06 PM Report abuse +9 rate up rate down Reply
kruddie00

The only thing honest about our nation's capital. Is its' name, Washington DC

March 02 2011 at 5:36 PM Report abuse +11 rate up rate down Reply

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