Thanks Cactus Flower.
The USA is a young country, especially compared to Europe.
I can see where a "Monarachy" can offer stability, unlike our elections where change can occur every 4 years for president.
Politicians depend on MONEY to get elected, monarchy's don't.
Obama's will spend 1 BILLION dollars according to estimates. A new high!
IMO, this is the core problem with USA elections.
How can politicians represent US, We the people when its BIG MONEY that puts them in office.
Lobbyists are blood suckers, they erode the system.
This piece is dated, the problem is much worse now.
Imagine, the number of lobbyists double in 5 years! clo
The Road to Riches Is Called K Street
By Jeffrey H. Birnbaum
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, June 22, 2005
To the great growth industries of America such as health care and home building add one more: influence peddling.
The number of registered lobbyists in Washington has more than doubled since 2000 to more than 34,750 while the amount that lobbyists charge their new clients has increased by as much as 100 percent. Only a few other businesses have enjoyed greater prosperity in an otherwise fitful economy.
The lobbying boom has been caused by three factors, experts say: rapid growth in government, Republican control of both the White House and Congress, and wide acceptance among corporations that they need to hire professional lobbyists to secure their share of federal benefits.
"There's unlimited business out there for us," said Robert L. Livingston, a Republican former chairman of the House Appropriations Committee and now president of a thriving six-year-old lobbying firm. "Companies need lobbying help."
Lobbying firms can't hire people fast enough. Starting salaries have risen to about $300,000 a year for the best-connected aides eager to "move downtown" from Capitol Hill or the Bush administration. Once considered a distasteful post-government vocation, big-bucks lobbying is luring nearly half of all lawmakers who return to the private sector when they leave Congress, according to a forthcoming study by Public Citizen's Congress Watch.
Political historians don't see these as positive developments for democracy. "We've got a problem here," said Allan Cigler, a political scientist at the University of Kansas. "The growth of lobbying makes even worse than it is already the balance between those with resources and those without resources."
for complete article:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/21/AR2005062101632.html
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