What's Wrong With Lobbying?

In business, lobbying is called "selling." In private life, lobbying is called "currying favor." In school we called it "sucking up." All of it is derived from the rational principal of exchange – I scratch your back, you scratch mine.

Lobbying is part of life, and just as natural. It is a Constitutional right for citizens to approach their elected leaders and attempt to influence their actions. It's a vital component of democracy.

So why are countless Congressmen and Senators scrambling to put more limits on lobbying?

They'll tell you we need to rein-in the influence of corrupt weasels like Jack Abramoff. They'll tell you we need to corral crooked cockroaches like Tom DeLay. After all, nobody wants government for sale to the highest bidder. But their solutions are as worthless as postpartum advice from Tom Cruise.

Lobbying is not the problem. Runaway political power is.

Politicians have power over almost every aspect of our lives. In Maryland, they're telling private industry how much to spend on employee health care. They're working tirelessly to outlaw certain types of marriage. They force you to put money into a Ponzi scheme retirement system doomed to failure and they make it a crime for ailing Uncle Jorge to live in your house.

As long as politicians have their hand on your wallet, their eyes in your bedroom, their noses in your e-mail and their ear to your telephone, it matters who's pulling their strings. But limiting dinners to a Big Mac and a Diet Coke, or outlawing certain private-sector jobs for law-maker’s families, will only make the corrupt more creative.

Politics is about the accumulation of power. Lobbying is about helping politicians get what they want in exchange for a few scraps tossed from the legislative table. Making laws against that will be just as effective as laws against sodomy, gambling and prostitution. At its best, the war on lobbying might be every bit as successful as the war on drugs.

Moving toward a more Libertarian government can make lobbying regulations irrelevant. Who cares if lobbyists give a Washington fat cat Dom Perignon enemas, lobster-covered hookers and a weekly junkets to St. Andrews as long as the Constitution and the courts put our rights and freedom out of his unscrupulous reach.

Self-interest is natural and the driving force behind success. It only becomes a problem with it's fueled by authority over the rights of others.

Trying to legislate against self-interest is a Sisyphean exercise. Limit the power of politicians and you automatically limit corrupting influences.

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