The revolving door of private-sector lobbyists-turned-government workers (and vice versa) is a long-standing problem in Washington, D.C. It is the root, in many respects, of corruption and unpopular decision-making by elected leaders. According to online congressional database LegiStorm, while both political parties are guilty of participating in this conflict of interest, the Republican Party embraces it to a far greater degree.
According to LegiStorm’s data, this past year saw 96 former lobbyists move into legislative offices on Capitol Hill. Of those, 64% of them (a total of 61 people) wound up working for Republicans.
On the flip side, when it comes to congressional staffers registering as paid lobbyists, “For over a decade, Republicans have made up the majority of staffers-turned-lobbyists every year except 2021, when numbers were virtually tied.” This year has already seen 225 (54%) former Republican staffers and 190 (46%) Democratic staffers heading to lobbying firms.
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One of the most memorable sound bites from Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential run was his claim that he would “drain the swamp.” It was a simplified sentiment about corruption in Washington that struck a chord with the Republican base because powerful politicians are so obviously enmeshed with corporate interests.
Trump failed to deliver on that promise in part because he personally embodies the corruption and failures of our unequal system. He recently told Fox News that he had worked on draining the swamp by firing many of the people he had hired in the first place. But Trump isn’t the one to blame for the seemingly endemic issue of political corruption. He was just better at capitalizing on it in a political party beset with swamp creatures.
Back in 2019, Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas made headlines when they agreed publicly to work on legislation that would legally inhibit the kind of revolving-door antics that have become commonplace in D.C. The last that was heard of those talks was Ocasio-Cortez telling “The Young Turks” in an interview shortly thereafter that the two legislators’ teams were in discussions on what the bill would look like. She implied that a sticking point might be whether the bill would include more robust restrictions on people not officially “registered” as lobbyists, or if it would simply mitigate formal lobbying.
Nothing seems to have come from those talks. On Jan. 6, 2021, Cruz and other Republicans did their best to overthrow the results of the election. Ocasio-Cortez tweeted that Cruz should resign for his part in the insurrection, saying, “I am happy to work with Republicans on this issue where there’s common ground, but you almost had me murdered 3 weeks ago so you can sit this one out. Happy to work w/ almost any other GOP that aren’t trying to get me killed. In the meantime if you want to help, you can resign.” So that bipartisan collaboration seems like a dead end.
In the meantime, the Republican Party, now in control of the House, has decided that the only corruption they are interested in tackling involves evidence-free, partisan sideshows starring Hunter Biden.
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The far-right justices on Wisconsin's Supreme Court just can't handle the fact that liberals now have the majority for the first time in 15 years, so they're in the throes of an ongoing meltdown—and their tears are delicious. On this week's episode of "The Downballot," co-hosts David Nir and David Beard drink up all the schadenfreude they can handle as they puncture conservative claims that their progressive colleagues are "partisan hacks" (try looking in the mirror) or are breaking the law (try reading the state constitution). Elections do indeed have consequences!