Lobbying is Bribery, It Should Be Banned

Source: Fair Observer

 

Richard Mellor

Afscme Local 444, retired
6-24-23

There’s a lot of talk these days about the influence that the Israeli lobby, AIPAC or the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, has on US politics. The AIPAC is one of many pro-Israel groups that raise funds for the European colonial settler state and US proxy in the Middle East and has come under fire for its influence on US politics and politicians. In 2022, AIPAC spent more than $17 million in direct support of 365 pro-Israel Democratic and Republican candidates according to the groups website.

 

But as much as AIPAC is in the sights of those wanting to end its influence on US elections (the lobbying group has about a 98% success rate so getting their backing is a major plus for any opportunistic political candidate, which is most of them) perhaps the real problem is that lobbying is such an important aspect of the US political scene. After all, it is basically legalized bribery, the “Best Democracy Money Can Buy”, which is the title of investigative journalist Greg Palast’s book on the subject.

 

Yesterday’s Wall Street Journal had an article detailing the ramping up of weapons production at home thanks to the war the US is waging against Russia using Ukranian boots on the ground. “The conflict in Ukraine has left the U.S. military and allies wanting for shells and other firepower,” the article points out. The U.S. has committed to giving Kyiv more than $36 billion in arms but given the unexpected length of the conflict which, as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken stated, the US entered in the hope of weakening Russia, a global competitor, the weapons manufacturers have had a hard time keeping up.

 

Back in February 2022 the US produced 14,000 of the highly popular 155mm shells but more are needed and Ukraine has been firing thousands of them a day, from US supplied howitzers.  So the Pentagon hopes to change the present situation and is spending some $6 billion on aging production facilities, “….to revamp them with modern equipment and expand output at new facilities that can churn out a variety of munitions, from shells to mortars.” $1 billion is going to General Dynamics at its modern plant in Mesquite Texas. The WSJ article goes in to some detail about the up to date production process at the plant which is heavily automated.

 

The US currently produces 30,000 of these 155mm shells a month and hopes, with more modernized production facilities like the General Dynamics plant, hopes to produce 100,000 a month by 2025 if the Ukrainians can keep sending men to the front. Another defence contractor, Lockheed Martin is doubling production of Himars and Javelin Rockets and there’s probably more. There’s many a defence contractor CEO and their investors hoping the Ukrainians can hang on another year or two as it’s a bright future for this industry of death. Billions of US taxpayer dollars are also sent to the fascist regime in Israel and that market could grow considerably if Israel and Lebanon wage war which could be on the cards as the Biden Administration has committed the U.S. (that’s you and I) to supporting the Zionists totally; this regime is the only ally the U.S has in the Middle East so a defeat for its proxy would be a major blow in an increasingly fractured world.

 

We know that the defence industry also bribes politicians through the lobbying process. In fiscal year 2022, the top five defence contractors shared more than $118 billion in Pentagon contracts. Northrop Grumman’s share price increased 40 percent by the end of 2022, and Lockheed Martin’s by 37 percent. 

 

By 2023, more than 500 Former government officials were lobbying for defence contractors and Boeing spent more than $38.6 million on federal lobbying in the 1^st quarter alone. By the same year, defence contractors campaign contributions over the previous two election were  $83 million.

 

In the election cycle up to 2023, “Mike Rogers, the House Armed Services Committee head received more than $511,000 from weapons makers …..”  “Ken Calvert, the new head of the defence appropriations subcommittee, followed close behind at $445,000.” Is it any wonder that these politicians are war hawks. They often have defence manufacturing plants in their states. They use the lie that they are protecting jobs, just like the say when they need to lower wages, it’s that or no job. Either way; is producing weapons of mass destruction the best way to utilize the productive forces? (Fair Observer 3-30-23)

 

And the weapons manufactures are not alone and not even the biggest bribers of politicians. The pharmaceutical industry is by far the worst. Here are a few of the big spenders in 2024:

 

When the capitalist mass media reports on labor and workers' influence on elections---- and the heads of organized labor waste a lot of our hard earned dues money donating it to the Democratic Party----it refers to the labor officialdom as  "labor bosses" or to the trade unions as "big Labor" but the above image shows labor cannot compete with capital when it comes to cash, they have more of it that's why we call them capitalists. Throwing workers' dues money at politicians in a major capitalist party is a waste of money.

 

When we wonder why we don’t have universal health care, why we actually have a piss poor national health care system that eats up a huge percentage of GDP, it’s because health care is left to the private sector. Why do we have 800 bases around the world and a trillion dollar misnamed defence industry. Who are we threatened by?  What country could invade the US without risking total annihilation? It’s not about defence it’s about profits.

 

The door from the US Congress to the lobbying/bribery industry is a revolving one and until we put a stop to it, we will continue to have these forever wars that the US rogue regime, whether Republican or Democrat, drags us in to at a great financial and social cost to us, and a brutal and inhumane cost to their victims.

 

Lobbying should be banned that’s for sure, so should the Electoral College but no party wants to do that as they are both rotten, they both benefit from the rottenness of it all.

 

But the problem is much deeper than that. Working class people have no political voice. The Democrats are as reviled as their Republican friends “across the aisle” and equally as violent and imperialistic, look at Biden hugging the fascist Netanyahu and supporting this psychopath’s genocidal assault on Gaza and the Palestinian people in general. Some 20,000 Gazan children are dead or missing according to the latest figures, some buried under rubble all backed by the US Congress.

And what party or candidates would reach across the aisle to another that is imperialistic, militaristic, and that represents big business unless it had the same roots and political platform barring a few minor details.  Both parties that dominate the US Congress are warmongering imperialistic parties. Both blame immigrants for a crisis or crises that are a result of their practices and policies.

 

Yes, AIPAC is a problem, it spends billions to influence legislation by bribing politicians. But it’s a huge industry and AIPAC is just one rotten apple in a bucket full of rotten apples.