Change... Not!

Arianna Huffington has a great op-ed today at The Huffington Post about how lobbyists are winning the war in the fight for any significant change in Washington. Both Obama and Members of Congress who at least speak of change are getting rolled and rolled hard. As she puts it:

Remember all that change Americans voted for in November? Well, there's been a change in the plans for change.

The detour has come courtesy of a familiar nemesis: DC lobbyists who, this year alone, have watered-down, gutted, or out-and-out killed ambitious plans for reforming Wall Street, energy, and health care.

The media like to pretend that something's at stake when a big bill is being debated on the House or Senate floor, but the truth is that by then the game is typically already over. The real fight happens long before. And the lobbyists usually win.

They're used to administrations and newly elected Congresses that come in with big plans for the future. But, as Obama and Congressional reformers are finding out, the future doesn't have a well-funded lobby. The past, on the other hand, is extremely well represented.

Oh how I wish that she wasn't dead right.

25 June 2009