Top 5 Lobbyists for the First Quarter of 2009
1. Chamber of Commerce of the U.S.A.: $9,996,000
2. Exxon Mobil: $9,320,000
3. Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America: $6,910,000
4. Chevron U.S.A. Inc: $6,800,000
5. Lockheed Martin Corporation: $6,380,000
No wonder there are so many alternatives to real reform and real change. If the buck stops in Washington the buck started in a lobbyists briefcase.
Simply put, if they can afford to lobby, they can afford to change.
This goes for every Special Interest and every Big Business. While they fight change and kick and scream we here in Real America are fucking dying. We are dying while fighting your wars, we are dying waiting for health care reform, we are going broke waiting for Wall St to clean up it's act, to make a long point short, Americans know you have the money, and now it is time to ante up.
Crossposted at docudharma.com
Some of you may recall the Great Economic Clusterfuck that recently took place. You know, the one where working and middle class Americans were asked to sacrifice while Rick Santelli rallied his Galtian forces on the trading room floor. Well, it turns out that many of the Corporations that caused and profited from that Clusterfuck did pretty good for themselves over all. While the rest of us were moving losing our jobs, our homes and our retirements, among other things, these guys found a few million bucks lying around to lobby Congress on their behalf.
The same politicians in the GOP and the Democratic Party that are "concerned" about drastic change just happen to be the recipients of these campaign donations.
Hmmm, very interesting . . .
Health Care, Health Insurance, & Pharma
- Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America: $6,910,000
- Pfizer, Inc: $6,140,000
- American Medical Association: $4,240,000
- American Hospital Association: $3,580,000
- Eli Lilly and Company: $3,440,000
- America's Health Insurance Plans, Inc: $2,030,000
- CVS Caremark Inc: $2,005,000
- Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association: $1,800,000
- GlaxoSmithKline: $1,780,000
- Merck & Co: $1,500,000
- United Health Group, Inc: $1,500,000
- Sanofi-Aventis U.S. Inc: $1,460,000
- Novartis: $1,347,134
- Abbott Laboratories: $1,260,000
- Astrazeneca Pharmaceuticals, LP: $1,250,000
- Medtronic, Inc: $1,238,000
Oil
- Exxon Mobil: $9,320,000
- Chevron U.S.A. Inc: $6,800,000
- Conoco Phillips: $5,980,935
- BP America, Inc: $3,610,000
- Marathon Oil Corporation: $3,380,000
- American Petroleum Institute: $1,810,000
Defense
- Lockheed Martin Corporation: $6,380,000
- General Electric Company: $4,540,000
- Northrop Grumman Corporation: $2,570,000
- Boeing Company: $2,410,00
- Honeywell International: $1,760,000
- Raytheon Company: $1,360,000
la vida locavore.org
You can read the full list of the top 100 Lobbyists at lavidalocavore.org, and my hat goes off to our own Jill Richardson for compiling this list.
As Jill points out in here article, these amounts do not truly represent just how much money gets funneled through Lobbyists to Congress. Many Corporations contract out to other lobbying firms, so, if Eli Lilly gave $6 million out of their pockets directly, it still doesn't count how much money they give indirectly in order to keep politicians in their thrall.
I believe that the reason the Democratic Majority will not get off of their asses for change is because they fear anything that would upset their lobbying buddies. We should make them fear pissing off their voters even more.
You can e-mail your Congress critter here if you feel like letting them know how much you appreciate lobbyists who break the system and fight us when we try to fix it.
Or, you can e-mail the White House, and tell them the same thing.
If the Corporations and Organizations that fight change can find the money to lobby politicians, they can find the money for change.
And if the politicians who take donations for their elections want voters, they have to pick a side. Either the voter comes first, or the lobbyists. Obviously, we can not have it both ways.