how lobbyists score bailout bucks

bigdog posted on 05/05/09 at 11:52 AM

Now that governmental intervention seems to be trickling into every sector, it’s more important than ever to track the palm-greasing. As highlighted in Business Week, OpenSecrets.org tracks political donations and D.C. lobbying across all industries.

If you’re one of many dismayed by the U.S. auto industry’s complacent approach to whipping themselves back into fiscal shape, you might find OpenSecret’s guide to tracking the U.S. auto industry’s influence in Washington interesting.

I wonder if OpenSecrets will be shedding its light on tracking the bailout expenditures, too? That’d be taking transparency to a new level – one we could badly use these days.

[image: from the OpenSecrets website]
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Posted by bigdog on 05/05/09 at 11:52 AM

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incubus posted May 05, 2009 (09:48PM)

This is incredibly interesting, especially when you look at the $136 million paid in 10 years and the spread of $100 million for one group to the $34 million to another group and observe the current strife over who's unhappy over "big government" intervention and "socialism".
Not making this a political thing, but there are some very interesting numbers there that really line up with much of my endless ranting in the forum.

I wonder what ever happened to Tucker?
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bigdog posted May 06, 2009 (10:40AM)

Glad you're finding it useful, Incubus. It IS interesting to see how lobbying bucks might influence the rhetoric we're seeing right now. It's also enlightening to compare how much certain industries are paying in versus others.

I haven't spent a lot of time on OpenSecrets, but if you find any way to figure out lobbying $ as a percentage of an industry's total revenue, that'd be perhaps the most handy figure of all - could help us identify those industries that are investing heavily towards lobbying their favored policies.

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incubus posted May 06, 2009 (05:26PM)

Here's two more, and the numbers have a striking similarity - 


I'd say this is the very heart of the biggest problem this country has, where justice and the welfare of the citizen take second fiddle to profitability.

By the way, very flattering that you interact with members, says a lot about you and the way you keep shop.
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bigdog posted May 07, 2009 (12:52PM)

Glad you're really juicing OpenSecrets for all it's worth, Incubus. If this info informs any of your trades, I'd be curious to hear about it, as would others, I bet.

Thanks for the compliment, too - although I gotta say the pleasure of these interactions is all mine. I really learn a lot from you guys, and these interactions are invaluable to help us prioritize our work to serve you better.
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