Wednesday, July 06, 2005

Show me the Money

Via Winds comes this interesting conversation starter.

The professional fund-raisers get a percentage of the money raised. The consultants who devise the lobbying campaigns get a percentage of the money spent. The lobbyists get to keep all of the rest that isn't used as campaign contributions to incumbent Congressmen & Senators. The people who direct the contributions get a percentage of the money given to the Congressmen & Senators. The Congressmen & Senators like the money they get. And they give a percentage of it which they spend to the consultants who share it with the professional fund-raisers.

It's a nice racket. And they are all motivated to scream loudly and be publicly nasty to show the contributors how hard they are fighting for whatever.
...
The normal ratio is that when something turns into a fight, lobbying money goes up 5-7 times as much. That would indicate a quarter billion or so.
Which means that the racket is an underlying cause of vitriolic partisan battles. It's all about the money.
Discuss.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

When is it NOT about the money, or the power? These seem to be your two options. The thing about vitriolic partisan battles is that they are sure-fire attention-getters, and if that attention garners even more income... everybody in the racket, no matter what side, wins.