4 ms·
That figure seems a bit low. So you have 535 members of Congress. Other govt officials (State, trade and aid agencies, ...) foreign powers have a legitimate in
by akho 7y ago
That figure seems a bit low.
So you have 535 members of Congress. Other govt officials (State, trade and aid agencies, ...) foreign powers have a legitimate interest in meeting probably brings that figure to a 1000. Congresspeople have aides, staff, &c — who also need to be dined. To maintain the whole show, you need to have your own staff — well-educated, worldly people — who need to be paid, need offices to work in, ....
I don’t think anyone buys yachts from this.
- manquer 7y agoForeign governments have embassies and diplomatic staff for precisely this kind of work . Why do they need more than that ?
- akho 7y agoDiplomatic staff is very limited in number (because they have immunity, so the host country does not want it inflated too much). These kinds of jobs do not require immunity and can be done by non-diplomats.
- manquer 7y agoNot all diplomatic staff carry diplomatic visas. Every other country in the world where lobbying is not legal, all of this is done with government staff, this usecase cannot be a justification for having lobbying when everyone else gets along fine without it when a foreign government employs a third party firm it looks like it wants plausible deniability , or that they are trying purchase access and influence that these firms have as Kushner was selling .