Republic, Lost_ How Money Corrupts Congress--And a Plan to Stop It - Lawrence Lessig [74]
That’s substantive distortion. The argument supporting it is long and complex. Length and complexity are certain to lose some souls on the way.
The argument for agenda distortion, however, is much simpler. Indeed, it can be made with a single case.
In the spring of 2011 the United States faced many public policy problems. We were in the middle of two wars. The economy was still in the tank: thirteen million Americans were unemployed, almost 15 percent were on food stamps, and 20 percent of kids were living in poverty. There was an ongoing battle about health care, and the public debt. There was a continuing fight over taxes. Likewise over immigration policy. Many wanted tort reform. Legislation to address global warming had still not been passed. Nor had an appropriations bill, or a budget. And a fight between Tea Party Republicans and the rest of Congress was bringing America to the brink of a government shutdown.
So within that mix, what issue would you say was “the most consuming issue in Washington—according to members of Congress, Hill staffers, lobbyists and Treasury officials—”129 at least as reported by the Huffington Post’s Ryan Grim and Zach Carter?
A bill to limit the amount banks could charge for the use of debit cards: so-called “swipe fees.”
This bill, addressing the question of “interchange rates,” meaning the amount banks can charge retailers for the use of a debit card, was the leading issue for lobbyists. And therefore for Congress, too. As Grim and Carter describe, “a full 118 ex-government officials and aides [were] registered to lobby on behalf of banks…. [A]t least 124 revolving-door lobbyists” were lobbying on behalf of retailers. The issue dominated Congress’s calendar. And beyond it, “a handful of other intra-corporate contests consume most of what remains on the Congressional calendar: a squabble over a jet engine, industry tussling over health-care spoils and the never-ending fight over the corporate tax code.”
We all recognize that “Congress is zombified.” Nothing gets done. Or at least, nothing relative to the issues that any objective measure would say were the most important issues for the nation to resolve. But “one of the least understood explanations,” as Grim and Carter explain, “is also one of the simplest: The city is too busy refereeing disputes between major corporate interest groups.” As Grim and Carter quote one anonymous moderate Democratic senator:
I’m surprised at how much of our time is spent trying to divide up the spoils between various economic interests. I had no idea. I thought we’d be focused on civil liberties, on education policy, energy policy and so on…. The fights down here can be put in two or three categories: The big greedy bastards against the big greedy bastards; the big greedy bastards against the little greedy bastards; and some cases even the other little greedy bastards against the other little greedy bastards.
Why, you might ask, is Congress held hostage like this? Why can’t it just focus on what it wants to focus on? I doubt there is a single member of the House or Senate who thought, “I’m going to go to Congress so I can ‘divide up the spoils between various economic interests.’ ” So why don’t they simply do what they went to Congress to do? (“Oh poor, poor me, I hate CBS.” “So change channels!”)
The answer is almost hidden in Grim and Carter’s otherwise brilliant essay. As they write, “[T]he clock never ticks down to zero in Washington: one year’s law is the next year’s repeal target. Politicians, showered with cash from card companies and giant retailers alike, have been moving back and forth between camps, paid handsomely for their shifting allegiances.”
Just to be sure you didn’t miss the money point in this money quote: Congress,