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Being funded by the people you're supposed to keep account of is not the best of strategies.

• phlux 16y ago
  Unless those you're keeping account of are willing to pay you.... This is how Congress works.
  • estel 16y ago
    In what way? The people both pay for and keep account of their Government.
    • phlux 16y ago
      Lobbyists. How do you think laws are written so fast in response to events? Surely there has not been a single law in a very long time that was actually, truly, written by the sponsors in congress pushing for them. They are written by aides and lobbyists.
      • gamble 16y ago
        Exactly right. It's in practice impossible for politicians to draft legislation themselves and still have the time and political capital to pass it. In modern politics it's a mistake to see 'Senator Smith' as an independent entity; he is more like the CEO of 'Senator Smith Inc.': leading, glad-handling, and making high-level decisions - but the grunt-work of drafting laws falls to lower-level members of the organization, lobbyists, or so-called 'think tanks'. There is a great book on this subject by Paul Light, "The President's Agenda", that goes into how even the president is usually forced to choose between pre-existing options rather than draft his own initiatives.