Saturday, February 20, 2010
Lobbying Appears to be Recession-Proof
This article talks about the increase in spending on lobbying. Companies and interest groups are reported to have increased lobbying spending by 5% despite the recession and the decline of the dollar. On the one hand, it seems like companies and interest groups would want to cut down on lobbying expenses given the state of the economy, but on the other hand it would make sense that in a time like this companies and interest groups will be willing to spend more to further their specific interests. Lobbying expenditure was mostly on issues like health care, financial reform, climate-change legislation - all things that are extremely important for the future.
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2 comments:
This is an interesting report. I agree with AEMILLER that when times are tough, companies would spend more on lobbying. The government is willing to spend money and companies really want to get some of these funds. They are probably not doing as well so if they can get some government money, it would be a great help. Adding to this is there were some major issues debated this year like healthcare. Changes to the system would affect every business, so all companies wanted to have a say on the issue. Depending what happened, companies could lose out on a great deal of money.
It's not surprising that the health and pharmaceutical industry (as well as the insurance industry) spent so much on lobbying in 2009 considering the health care debate would greatly affect their industries. It does not surprise me that during a recession lobbying would increase because during such times changes in policy can impact business', and such companies would want to ensure that the changes will not harm their long-term profits.
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