Lobbyists, Earmarks, Bureaucrats...oh my!

The problem with a sound bite culture is that people get confused between a given label and things that are abusive and can be described by that label.

There is nothing inherently wrong with being a lobbyist. Many lobbyists are highly-educated in the field in which they lobby. What's more, a blanket repudiation of all lobbyists can have devasting effects when one tries to staff one's nascent administration. What is wrong is when a lobbyist abuses their access (or when an earmark's effects are abusively local, or when a bureaucrat abuses their position). When you roll all three abuses together, things get really ugly (see here or here).

Labeling a group on the basis of the abuses by some members of the group is a form of mental cheating. Information is the currency of democracy, let's not cheat ourselves of the whole of the information out there.

The Government Lobby

On one hand, it seems to me that it is very odd that a government entity would hire to people to lobby the government. But the oddity comes from the fact that it is very easy to think of the government as a singular entity. It isn't. There are many agencies/jurisdictions fighting for budget dollars. It, therefore, does ultimately make sense that government lobbyists exist.

Recognizing this, though, is not to say that having government agencies lobby government policymakers is optimal in any way. And having the combined agencies and jurisdictions of South Florida fork over 8 million dollars of tax money back into lobbying efforts seems to all but scream for reform of the budgetary decisionmaking process.