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Stop the Revolving Door

by: PaulHodes

Wed Aug 04, 2010 at 11:33:19 AM EDT
( - promoted by Dean Barker)

For years, there's been an express train between Capitol Hill and K Street.

We have former employees of big corporations ending up in the agencies that are supposed to regulate them. We have former public servants securing high-paid jobs in the businesses they used to oversee.

That may be good for K Street, but it's bad for the American people.

Today I am announcing my plan to end the revolving door in Washington between public officials and corporate lobbyists.
PaulHodes :: Stop the Revolving Door
I believe the cozy relationship between the special interests and the people who are supposed to be representing OUR interests has to end.

My plan would require Senators and Members of Congress to wait the length of a full term - two years for House members and six years for Senators - before lobbying their former colleagues. Former regulators seeking to become bank lobbyists would have to wait six years before lobbying, instead of the currently mandated one, as would individuals who worked for  the Minerals Management Service (MMS). Other federal officials and government employees currently required to wait only one year before engaging in lobbying would have that time frame doubled.

After the BP oil spill, it was revealed that 29 of the 43 lobbyists the company had hired to do their bidding on Capitol Hill were former Congressional or Administration staffers.

With a line-up like that, it's no wonder they managed to keep loose regulations in place for so long.

This is exactly the kind of conflict of interest that is par for the course in Washington.

And this is exactly the kind of business as usual I won't stand for in the US Senate.

Help me stand up to the special interests trying to corrupt and control our political process.

When we let special interests and corporate self-interest prevail, there's one interest that gets ignored -the people's interest.

That's why I'm running for the US Senate-to answer to you, and you alone.
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Stop the Revolving Door | 2 comments
Thank you, Congressman! (0.00 / 0)
Keep up the good work.  The Senate needs a principled fighter with the courage to stand up to corporate special interests.
The federal government is a public corporation. (0.00 / 0)
Congress is the body that's supposed to write regulations to insure that other artificial entities (public and private corporations) act as their charters demand.  Don't blame the lobbyists.  If members of Congress have been lax in regulating private corporations, it's largely because they appreciate the opportunity to suborn the private sector to carry out functions and/or programs which Constitutional limitations prevent them from doing themselves.  (Spying on the electronic communications of ordinary Americans is a good recent example of private corporations being suborned by the public one).

On the other hand, there's no question that American enterprise is entirely too dependent on government "protection" from competitors. In one sense, this is logical because the concept of competition has devolved to the behavior of predators, who aim to destroy each other, rather than co-operate and coordinate to reach common goals.  

If everybody's out to get you, you need someone to protect you.

The myth of American free enterprise is perhaps our most destructive one.  Not only have trade and industry and commerce been dependent on government benefits from before our founding, but the false mantra of independence keeps all but the elite from their entitlements.
That corporations, both public and private, have social obligations to satisfy tends to be overlooked in the controversies over individual human rights.  But, our rights are worthless, if they're not respected and served by public officials carrying out their obligations.  Private corporations, having had their claim to the same rights as the natural private person go unchallenged (so far), are virtually exempt.  That accounts for the messes they are allowed to create with impunity.

BP promising to clean up the Gulf of Mexico is supposed to be some sort of virtue, when it ought to be an unquestioned obligation.  Why do we negotiate with energy companies about when they are going to stop pumping carbon into the air, as if they were teenagers reluctant to clean up their room?

Stop the Revolving Door | 2 comments

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