7 ms·

Let's say I'm a congressman and I meet with a lobbyist. How am I getting bribed?

temp231239 8y ago
Post retirement, same congressman get hired as an executive for the company or congressman starts an startup which is brought by the lobbyist company or ... There are far more complex ways for congressmen to receive benefits for accepting lobbyist agenda. Any action by congressman that doesn't make sense to common mass is result of lobbying. Every human being possesses basic intellect to konw what's good/or not for us and its the greed that persuade them to act differently.
- SamReidHughes 8y ago
  > Every human being possesses basic intellect to konw what's good/or not for us and its the greed that persuade them to act differently. This is obviously not true because then every voter would support the same policies. You can't even get everybody to agree on defunding public education!
  - CoryG89 8y ago
    Obviously you aren't going to be able to get everyone to agree on everything, but I think the vast majority of this is simply because people are easily manipulated, and are so prone to group think and jumping on the bandwagon. If it weren't for lobbying and political campaigns trying to tell you what to think, I believe that the vast majority of the public would be much more aligned.
    - jefftk 8y ago
      Have you tried to get a group to consensus in an area where there isn't any lobbying or manipulation? People have lots of different ideas about how to do things, informed by different life experiences. Political disagreement predates lobbying and campaigns by millennia.
- kortilla 8y ago
  >Any action by congressman that doesn't make sense to common mass is result of lobbying. Every human being possesses basic intellect to konw what's good/or not for us and its the greed that persuade them to act differently. No, the entire reason we need new laws is to deal with new unforeseen situations and complex interactions. “Basic intellect” will very frequently be wrong when it comes to the implementation of health policies, tax policies, trade policies, economic policies, and so on.
mrpopo 8y ago
I'm not sure what you are asking. It can happen in many different forms. For instance, the lobbyist asks for measures profiting their business that go against your campaign promises, but you can't refuse, because otherwise they won't pay for your reelection campaign.
- SamReidHughes 8y ago
  Supporting your election campaign isn't bribery. And it's pretty implausible. Individual campaign contributions are capped at a few thousand dollars.
  - rypskar 8y ago
    >Supporting your election campaign isn't bribery. How is that not bribery? It is directly: do this for me and I will give money to you (or something you care about)
    - SamReidHughes 8y ago
      All supporters' contributions are conditional that way.
      - lordnacho 8y ago
        No they're not. Honest contributors think a candidate will be conscientious in making decisions for the common good, not "will he do this one thing that benefits me". In all likelihood whoever you voted for did something that wasn't to your benefit (they vote on many things), but you voted for him anyway. Ditto with money.
    - kortilla 8y ago
      You’ve described all political fundraising. People only donate to Bernie because of his views. If he decided to change views to suddenly support free market solutions, his donator base would dry up. “Support socialism and I’ll donate” is the same thing as “support solar industry and I’ll donate”.
AsyncAwait 8y ago
- If you've received campaign contributions from the corporation said lobbyist works for, I think it's apparent to everyone how, (you scratch my back...). - You're giving a citizen which may not even live in your constituency and works for a corporation the kind of access to yourself that you'd never grant a regular constituent. - Over the decades, an understanding has been built of 'the revolving door', how former government workers switch to the private sector and then come back as lobbyists, utilizing their contacts and friendships to get what their employer wants. Or they come back into government with a massive exit package, while still being loyal to their former employer and vote for wars etc, when then conveniently their 'former' employer can send equipment for etc. Then they switch to the private sector again, collecting millions annually for a position that has no real responsibility. The notion that there's corruption only when filmed passing banknotes is absurd, there's a reason the notion of intention exists in criminal law.
- wil421 8y ago
  Let’s say some environmental committee is headed by a Representative from New York. An Environmentalist organization from California wants new legislation to improve air quality across the US. Let’s assume no representatives from California are on the committee. Does this mean it’s not right for the California organization to lobby the New York rep? I highly doubt every issue a house rep deals with is about their own constituents.
  - AsyncAwait 8y ago
    There's a difference between an organization representing the public interest, (air quality), and some for-profit megacorp looking to maximize profits, often at the expense of public interest. Pretending there isn't is just dumb. Also, unless they gave him campaign cash, I doubt they'd even be able to get the same kind of a hearing a corporate donor would, but my solution to this is to not allow any campaign contributions at all and to have public financing of elections, so that there's a greater chance politicians will actually represent what the people want.
    - 8y ago
swebs 8y ago
It depends. Who are you on this list? https://www.opensecrets.org/members-of-congress/members-list https://www.opensecrets.org/members-of-congress/members-list For example, the top recipient of donations, Beto O'Rourke, received $224,463 from Alphabet Inc (AKA Google) in 2018.
- dragonwriter 8y ago
  The reporting of sources is potentially misleading: none of the identified organizations gave any money. The amount attributed to them aggregates donations by the organizations PACs (which presumably align with the organization's interests) and their “individual members or employees or owners, and those individuals' immediate families”, including subordinate and affiliate organizations. Now, I don't know about you, but I find that the interests of labor and capital in the same firm are often not aligned, but this list list both as donations by the firm.
- UncleMeat 8y ago
  That list includes donations from people who work at Google.
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]

Post retirement, same congressman get hired as an executive for the company or congressman starts an startup which is brought by the lobbyist company or ... There are far more complex ways for congressmen to receive benefits for accepting lobbyist agenda. Any action by congressman that doesn't make sense to common mass is result of lobbying. Every human being possesses basic intellect to konw what's good/or not for us and its the greed that persuade them to act differently.

SamReidHughes 8y ago
> Every human being possesses basic intellect to konw what's good/or not for us and its the greed that persuade them to act differently. This is obviously not true because then every voter would support the same policies. You can't even get everybody to agree on defunding public education!
- CoryG89 8y ago
  Obviously you aren't going to be able to get everyone to agree on everything, but I think the vast majority of this is simply because people are easily manipulated, and are so prone to group think and jumping on the bandwagon. If it weren't for lobbying and political campaigns trying to tell you what to think, I believe that the vast majority of the public would be much more aligned.
  - jefftk 8y ago
    Have you tried to get a group to consensus in an area where there isn't any lobbying or manipulation? People have lots of different ideas about how to do things, informed by different life experiences. Political disagreement predates lobbying and campaigns by millennia.
kortilla 8y ago
>Any action by congressman that doesn't make sense to common mass is result of lobbying. Every human being possesses basic intellect to konw what's good/or not for us and its the greed that persuade them to act differently. No, the entire reason we need new laws is to deal with new unforeseen situations and complex interactions. “Basic intellect” will very frequently be wrong when it comes to the implementation of health policies, tax policies, trade policies, economic policies, and so on.

mrpopo 8y ago

I'm not sure what you are asking. It can happen in many different forms. For instance, the lobbyist asks for measures profiting their business that go against your campaign promises, but you can't refuse, because otherwise they won't pay for your reelection campaign.

SamReidHughes 8y ago
Supporting your election campaign isn't bribery. And it's pretty implausible. Individual campaign contributions are capped at a few thousand dollars.
- rypskar 8y ago
  >Supporting your election campaign isn't bribery. How is that not bribery? It is directly: do this for me and I will give money to you (or something you care about)
  - SamReidHughes 8y ago
    All supporters' contributions are conditional that way.
    - lordnacho 8y ago
      No they're not. Honest contributors think a candidate will be conscientious in making decisions for the common good, not "will he do this one thing that benefits me". In all likelihood whoever you voted for did something that wasn't to your benefit (they vote on many things), but you voted for him anyway. Ditto with money.
  - kortilla 8y ago
    You’ve described all political fundraising. People only donate to Bernie because of his views. If he decided to change views to suddenly support free market solutions, his donator base would dry up. “Support socialism and I’ll donate” is the same thing as “support solar industry and I’ll donate”.

AsyncAwait 8y ago

- If you've received campaign contributions from the corporation said lobbyist works for, I think it's apparent to everyone how, (you scratch my back...). - You're giving a citizen which may not even live in your constituency and works for a corporation the kind of access to yourself that you'd never grant a regular constituent. - Over the decades, an understanding has been built of 'the revolving door', how former government workers switch to the private sector and then come back as lobbyists, utilizing their contacts and friendships to get what their employer wants. Or they come back into government with a massive exit package, while still being loyal to their former employer and vote for wars etc, when then conveniently their 'former' employer can send equipment for etc. Then they switch to the private sector again, collecting millions annually for a position that has no real responsibility. The notion that there's corruption only when filmed passing banknotes is absurd, there's a reason the notion of intention exists in criminal law.

wil421 8y ago
Let’s say some environmental committee is headed by a Representative from New York. An Environmentalist organization from California wants new legislation to improve air quality across the US. Let’s assume no representatives from California are on the committee. Does this mean it’s not right for the California organization to lobby the New York rep? I highly doubt every issue a house rep deals with is about their own constituents.
- AsyncAwait 8y ago
  There's a difference between an organization representing the public interest, (air quality), and some for-profit megacorp looking to maximize profits, often at the expense of public interest. Pretending there isn't is just dumb. Also, unless they gave him campaign cash, I doubt they'd even be able to get the same kind of a hearing a corporate donor would, but my solution to this is to not allow any campaign contributions at all and to have public financing of elections, so that there's a greater chance politicians will actually represent what the people want.
  - 8y ago

swebs 8y ago

It depends. Who are you on this list? https://www.opensecrets.org/members-of-congress/members-list https://www.opensecrets.org/members-of-congress/members-list For example, the top recipient of donations, Beto O'Rourke, received $224,463 from Alphabet Inc (AKA Google) in 2018.

dragonwriter 8y ago
The reporting of sources is potentially misleading: none of the identified organizations gave any money. The amount attributed to them aggregates donations by the organizations PACs (which presumably align with the organization's interests) and their “individual members or employees or owners, and those individuals' immediate families”, including subordinate and affiliate organizations. Now, I don't know about you, but I find that the interests of labor and capital in the same firm are often not aligned, but this list list both as donations by the firm.
UncleMeat 8y ago
That list includes donations from people who work at Google.
deleted 8y ago
[deleted]