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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
by 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 agoExactly 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.