Lobbying’s Return on Investment
By: BJ Lawson
When we substitute influence peddling for the Rule of Law, the value of Washington lobbyists becomes evident. As today’s Wall Street Journal notes, the return on investment is huge:
General Motors Corp. spent $3.3 million on lobbying in the fourth quarter of 2008, a period that coincides with the government committing $13.4 billion to the ailing auto maker under the Treasury’s Troubled Asset Relief Program. In all of 2008, GM spent $13.1 million on lobbying, down from $14.3 million in 2007. GM’s reported lobbying expenses for 2008 were only slightly less than combined spending by Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler LLC.
“Lobbying is the transparent and effective way that GM has its voice heard on critical policy issues…that companies should not be required to forfeit if they receive federal funding,” said GM spokesman Greg A. Martin, who added that no funds lent from the Treasury would be used for lobbying.
The last sentence is especially insightful. Clearly, they must have keep their lobbying cash in a separate bucket from the truckloads of funds delivered from the federal government. How else would they keep score, and learn that their return on lobbying investment was 1,000-to-1 in 2008? The article also reports the combined Bank of America/Merrill Lynch lobbying return was over 5,000-to-1: $45 billion received, versus $8.8 million spent.
January 24th, 2009 at 1:48 am
Money is fungible. Any company receiving corporate welfare payments should be enjoined from any lobbying of congress. Of course, the chances of the congress slamming the door on their main source of campaign money is about the same as that of the Federal Reserve admitting their culpability for the real estate bubble.
-jcr
January 26th, 2009 at 5:54 pm
The government is now an open tool for businesses to get money. Whether they are in real financial trouble or not, such substantial profit gained from begging the government will just goad them to continue to beg for more. Everyone loves a good government handout. Yes, my business is failing. Please give me 50 billion dollars.
This will continue to go on until our economy just flat out collapses along with the dollar. People like BJ have to get in and stop this crap before it’s too late. BJ for 2010!
May 6th, 2009 at 8:14 am
Interesting article. Were did you got all the information from…