…well, after the illicit drug trade, anyway.

It’s lobbying. And you can thank the GOP for its rapid growth:

The number of registered lobbyists in Washington has more than doubled since 2000 to more than 34,750 while the amount that lobbyists charge their new clients has increased by as much as 100 percent. Only a few other businesses have enjoyed greater prosperity in an otherwise fitful economy.

The lobbying boom has been caused by three factors, experts say: rapid growth in government, Republican control of both the White House and Congress, and wide acceptance among corporations that they need to hire professional lobbyists to secure their share of federal benefits.

“There’s unlimited business out there for us,” said former Rep. Robert L. Livingston (R-La.), who was chairman of the House Appropriations Committee and now is president of a thriving six-year-old lobbying firm.

Part of this is due to corporations clamoring to get a chunk of the relatively paltry GOP tax cuts, as well as to influence a more corporate-friendly regulatory environment (remember, “corporate-friendly” and “market-friendly” aren’t always the same thing).

But a huge part of it is good old-fashioned welfare:

The Republicans in charge aren’t just pro-business, they are also pro-government. Federal outlays increased nearly 30 percent from 2000 to 2004, to $2.29 trillion. And despite the budget deficit, federal spending is set to increase again this year, especially in programs that are prime lobbying targets such as defense, homeland security and medical coverage.

Imagine if all that money — not to mention the handouts they’re fighting for — were used to innovate, create, and add to the economy.

Instead, it’s sucked up by the K-Street vacuum and adds nothing in new jobs or economic benefit.

Unfortunately, there aren’t many taxpayers’ lobbyists on K Street, though I like to think of a little outfit on Massachusetts Avenue as the “taxpayers’ advocate.”

This entry was posted on Monday, June 27th, 2005 at 5:20 pm by Radley Balko and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.