Rep. Steve King Sings The Praises Of Lobbyists On The House Floor: ‘Somebody Needs To Stand Up’

Rep. Steve King Sings The Praises Of Lobbyists On The House Floor: ‘Somebody Needs To Stand Up’ For Them

The Center for Public Integrity reported recently that the health care debate kept more than 4,500 lobbyists employed at various points throughout the year, effectively drowning out the voices of the American public. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) said these lobbyists descend “into the offices of members of Congress and say, ‘Don’t vote for change. Keep the status quo alive.’”

This afternoon, while speaking on the floor of the House of Representatives, Rep. Steve King (R-IA) defended the role of Washington lobbyists, saying that they “do a very effective and useful job on this Hill” and went as far as to say that “somebody needs to stand up” for them:

KING: The people of my district deserve every bit of as much representation in this Congress as the people do in any district. But this structure, this iron-fisted structure in this House of Representatives, that’s what breaks down deliberative democracy and it undermines our constitutional republic and it denies the very legitimate knowledegable input from all across this country. Think about how this works. Each of the 435 of us we go home to our districts. We build a network of advisors providing information for us … in a whole series of ways. Town hall meetings, individual meetings, individual lobbyists, yes lobbyists do a very effective and useful job on this Hill. … Somebody needs to stand up for the lobby, it is a matter of providing a lot of valuable information.

Watch it: http://thinkprogress.org/2010/02/26/steve-king-lobbyists/


This isn’t the first time King has lauded lobbyists. Last year, he praised astroturf lobbying group Americans for Prosperity for busing in protesters to Washington, DC, even comparing them to Paul Revere. And unfortunately, he isn’t the only member of Congress who has taken it upon himself to defend lobbyists. During the Senate Finance Committee’s mark-up session of its version of the health care bill, Sen. Pat Roberts (R-KS) demanded that the committee delay its votes to give health care lobbyists “at least 72 hours” to read the bill.

Of course, lobbyists hardly need members of Congress standing up for them. For the health care debate alone, “1,750 companies and organizations hired about 4,525 lobbyists — eight for each member of Congress — to influence health reform bills in 2009.” Last year was a record year for lobbying expenditures, with $3.47 billion being spent to pay lobbyists to influence-peddle at every level of the federal government.

In what world would lobbyists need anyone to stand up for them?

I have no problem with the average citizen or even a group of citizens in an organization lobbying their representatives, but King is not talking about those lobbyists. He is talking about the multi-millionaires who sucker people into lobbying against their own interests. The hypocrisy knows no bounds.

For people who can't break away from their day-to-day business to go to Washington DC and personally meet with Senators and Representatives, paid lobbyists to present one's interests are indispensable. There are lobbyists for everything you can imagine, and then some. The trouble, and Rep. King disingenously ignores this, is that many lobbyists are hired to represent big money interests who are more than adequately represented through any number of means. I'm sure that Mr. King's door is always open for lobbyists from Corporate Agriculture concerns, Big Oil, Pharma and the like. Is his door similarly open and is his schedule similarly adaptable to meet with lobbyists for Oxfam, Heifer International and ACORN? I'm guessing no.