The Foundry

Posts Tagged ‘lobbying’

• Climate and Rent-Seeking

  Posted February 11th, 2010 at 12:00pm in Energy and Environment with 3 comments

  Data show 2009 was a record year for lobbying on energy issues.  1747 clients (firms and groups) hired lobbyists to work in the area of energy and nuclear power. This is a stunning 93 percent increase from 2006. This increase may be stunning, but it isn’t surprising.  With literally trillions of dollars put into play by [...] More

• Associated Press: Obama Rhetoric, Reality Clash

  Posted March 23rd, 2009 at 9:25am in Ongoing Priorities, Protect America, Rule of Law with 17 comments

  The AP reports, you decide: WASHINGTON – Barack Obama’s optimistic campaign rhetoric has crashed headlong into the stark reality of governing. In office two months, he has backpedaled on an array of issues, gingerly shifting positions as circumstances dictate while ducking for political cover to avoid undercutting his credibility and authority. That’s happened on the Iraq troop [...] More

• Obama’s Empty Ethics Promises

  Posted March 19th, 2009 at 9:21am in Rule of Law with 5 comments

  As a candidate, President Barack Obama promised to “Shine the Light on Washington Lobbying” by creating “a centralized Internet database of lobbying reports, ethics records, and campaign finance filings in a searchable, sortable and downloadable format.” That database will be completed any day, we’re sure, but President Obama has definitely already “shined a light” on [...] More

• Howard Dean No Longer Eligible to Work for Administration

  Posted March 10th, 2009 at 10:52am in Ongoing Priorities with 3 comments

  The Washington Post reports: Speaking of doctors, former Democratic National Committee chairman and six-term Vermont governor Howard Dean is the latest star to join the government affairs practice of law and lobbying mega-firm McKenna Long & Aldridge. He’s not only a physician but also a “thought leader” on politics and policy, a man whose “network of [...] More

• Morning Bell: A Vicious Cycle of Their Own Making

  Posted September 15th, 2008 at 9:22am in Ongoing Priorities with 15 comments

  In what some observers are calling a reshaping of Wall Street, two of the world’s largest investment banks, Merrill Lynch and Lehman Brothers, are set to disappear. Lehman has announced it will file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, and Merrill Lynch was bought by Bank of America. For all the complicated financial instruments and relationships [...] More

• Lobbyists Love Liberals

  Posted August 12th, 2008 at 11:28am in Ongoing Priorities with 0 comments

  We’ve explained on numerous occasions why lobbyists love it when liberals are in power. To put it succinctly: the more economic planning that goes through Washington, the more smart corporations must pay lobbyists to make sure Washington does not plan them out of existence. Today Jeffrey Birnbaum reports in his ‘On K Street‘ column, that [...] More

• Ethics, Shmethics

  Posted July 25th, 2008 at 11:22am in Ongoing Priorities with 0 comments

  Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-CA) first act when taking over control of the House was to pass a bill that the Washington Post called “the broadest ethics and lobbying revision since the Watergate era.” Since then, it has become well documented that the government sponsored entities Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, that are at the core [...] More

• What Would A “Maximum of Government Prescription” Look Like?

  Posted June 2nd, 2008 at 3:58pm in Energy and Environment with 0 comments

  Cheerleading for the Lieberman-Warner carbon cap plan being debated in the Senate as we type, the Washington Post editorializes: “The foundation of the legislation is a cap-and-trade system that would put a price on carbon by having a declining cap on greenhouse gas emissions permitted for each year between 2012 and 2050. Emission permits could [...] More

• Why Lobbyists Love Liberals

  Posted March 14th, 2008 at 1:50pm in First Principles, Health Care with 0 comments

  There are few better illustrations of the fundamental difference between liberals and conservatives than their markedly different approaches on how to curb special interest power in Washington. Liberals try to control the economy through ever more invasive regulations and when the regulated industries push back, liberals pass ever more stringent ethics and campaign finance laws. [...] More

• Morning Bell: Real Change Through Conservative Principles

  Posted February 18th, 2008 at 8:17am in Enterprise and Free Markets, First Principles with 0 comments

  The Washington Post Magazine yesterday published a must-read look at how Washington, D.C., really works. Far too often the Post and other media focus far too much attention on how election campaigns are financed and not nearly of attention on how lobbying campaigns are actually run. This type of coverage leads to meaningless regulation that [...] More