At Last, Obama Gets An “A+” On His Anti-Lobbyist Endeavor
Posted: Friday, November 27, 2009
by Joel Hendon
http://hebronics.org/index.html
I have spoken out rather harshly at times, concerning Obama's efforts and intents, not because he is Obama, but because I vehemently disagree with most of his philosophies. He made some promises during his candidacy which I approved of but didn't expect to see any effort made in that direction. One of those was that he intended to crack down on lobbying. Until recently, he had not done anything that I could see in that direction. In fact, he had appointed a number of them to certain jobs. But today I find that there is a good effort underfoot to rid all of them who serve on government panels. Now, it is my understanding that they are not paid for these positions, so it won't hurt their pay in that respect. However it may imperil their position with whomever they are employed as a lobbyist.
Anyway, this new policy issued by the White House ethics council forbids any lobbyist to hold a seat on any of the approximately 1,000 federal advisory board committees. Once fully implemented, all of those present members who are lobbyists will be ousted. At the present time, no one has an accurate count of how many lobbyists are involved in the estimated 60,000 members of those committees.
Needless to say, there is a lot of flak flying wildly about it. But the more the flak, the more positive it is that there are advantages for those companies who pay the lobbyist good money for their efforts. The entire lobbying system should be outlawed. When congress has to allot monies for, say, aircraft, they should be able to submit requests for bids and also information as to the company's resources and ability to comply with the contract specifications. All the wining and dining ought to be out of bounds.
I commend he president and those he has in the ethics council for this effort. I just hope they will not succumb to the influential companies as they blast off. There have already been a number letters to the president disagreeing with the decision from some, such as Boeing and Harley-Davidson for a couple. I also encourage them to continue to rid the government positions held by those lobbyists.
This type of thing, people influencing the actions of our leaders when their influence is not in the peoples best interest ought to be stopped. I've said it before, our healthcare system costs would improve greatly if we only cut out the exorbitant awards given against doctors and hospitals for malpractice suits, which are profitable primarily for the trial lawyers. Negligence and harm or expense from it, need to be compensated but only to a reasonable amount for the amount of harm caused. Trial lawyers are not lobbyists but with their heavy political contributions, they surely can influence the efforts for tort reform. Many of the suits should be dismissed as frivolous, and many others should only cover the monetary loss. Some people are in th business of suing, for a livelihood.
I hope President Obama will take more steps towards correcting special interests influence in our government and also become transparent as he promised. Otherwise, we need Sarah Palin. She'll do it.
This Article has been viewed 191 times. (Not updated in real-time.)
Top-level comments on this article: (3 total)What a terrible threat you made with that last sentence; this nation need a Sarah Palin at the helm like a submarine needs a screen door.The word "transparent" is an apt description of her head; all of her thus far writings and speeches reveal a rambling that is both mindless and incoherent.She is at best a political lightweight which only a nation of 'reality show' watchers could vote for and appreciate .But if we could elect George Bush, an abysmal paradigm of 'worst President in American history',a man with Downs Syndrome who abused the economy and strip mined the Bill of Rights, we could also likely elect a low brow Sarah Palin .Perhaps your last sentence will scare the Washington intelligentia from inaction into action to banish lobbyists as much as it scared me.She is still a head and shoulders above what now have. He had no experience, little government knowledge and filled his cabinet with thugs. Sarah is better.Obama was a PROFESSOR and Palin would not have been able to even pass his class with a grade of "D" let alone be allowed to be put into the same qualifying leadership sentence with him.(She 'palins' in comparison!)Worse compared to what? 4.5% unemployment 3.5% growth, safety at home, granted i didn't agree with a lot of what he did but he sure as heck is better than what we have right now. Abused the economy 17% unemployment, a "cabinet filled with crooks and tax cheats, Obama refuses to show his grades from Harvard, why because they are so low he only passed because of affirmative action and not because of merit? Who are you telling us that this Obama is some kind of messiah get real stop drinking the cool aid.Which bit of Paul's post is telling us "Obama is some kind of messiah"?I've read it and he doesn't mention Obama at all in the post you responded to, and doesn't suggest Obama is "some kind of messiah" in the other post either.Also, what evidence is there that Obama only passed because of affirmative action?
Obama also promised to not have lobbyists on his cabinet and none of his high level advisers. Well at last count he had 17. The man is not trustworthy. But I suppose even the incompetent can do something good once in a while.Yes, but I imagine much less will come from this than meets the eye. With those big companies with big campaign contributions will no doubt retain most of those people right where they are.These folks are good at making a big show, but that is about all they are good at.
It is great to see that you think there is one thing Obama has followed through on...and you know how I feel about Sarah Palin - if we are going to elect our first woman president why not Sarah. I think what we saw of her indicated she would be a breath of fresh air. Change, change, change - is not cutting it - didn't anyone who voted for change bother to ask WHAT change? I can change a hundred dollar bill from your hand to mine and I suspect you'd not like that change....MARANATHA!!!Thanks Marijo, now Paul has had his whupping which he deserves. :o)
We want your comments! If you can read this, you don't have javascript enabled, so you can't use this comment system. Please enable javascript.