RE: Choice 2: Starting Questions

[Nancy Thomas <thomasn@cdnet.cod.edu>]

Lobbyists art not the problem. They are a way for citizens who have a special interest (not a bad thing either) to get their voice heard en masse, which gets greater attention than a single citizen normally can. However, the money that lobbyists give to candidates is the problem, which buys secret meetings with them when they become elected officials. Elected officials should be required to hold open meetings any time a lobbyist wants to meet with them. Lobbyists should not draft the language of bills passed by the House or the Senate. That is giving them an unfair advantage in drafting legislation, which is not their function. I don't agree that a lifetime ban on lobbying for former members of Congress is a fair solution. Open meetings are. I don't agree that citizens should take up every law passed and go to the voting booth to vote it up or down. 50% of the citizens don't vote even in a presidential campaign. What makes us think that special interest groups that didn't like a certain law wouldn't "get out the vote" to over turn it? We have to be careful that the solutions offered to campaign finance reform aren't worse in the long run than what we have now.