Posted by
Dave on Tuesday, April 22, 2008 6:34:06 PM
"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion,
or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of
speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to
assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances." -- The First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America (emphasis added).
"
I don't know how many of you have a lobbyist in Washington." -- Barack Obama
Among
the freedoms guaranteed to American citizens by the Bill of Rights is
the right to petition the government. The Founding Fathers apparently
saw this as a right of primary importance, as it was included in the
first addition to the Bill of Rights, and mentioned in the same
sentence as freedoms of speech, religion, the press, and assembly.
Of
course, when the Bill of Rights was conceived, the federal government
had little power; it was not, at that time, in the business of
confiscating the fruits of one party's labor to give to another party.
There were no welfare programs, either personal or corporate; there was
no income tax, or capital gains tax, or telecommunications tax, or
gasoline tax, or payroll tax. The government at that time didn't
subsidize sugar or corn-based ethanol, nor did it set production quotas
on farmers or artificially increase the price consumers pay for milk at
the behest of the big agricultural companies. Yet in spite of the
limited federal government the Founding Fathers envisioned, they still
considered it vital to the cause of liberty to commit to posterity the
right for individuals to petition the government.
Today, the
federal government has expanded in size and intrusiveness. The fruits
of our labor are confiscated by the government to redistribute to
others -- our private property is taken to give to developers via
eminent domain; the first fruits of our labor are taken to fund the
welfare state; our savings and investments are taxed along with our
investments and our purchases. We are even taxed upon death should we
be fortunate enough to have an estate we wish to leave to our friends
and family. The money and property taken from us is then given to
various factions -- real estate developers, corporations, individuals
-- in the form of subsidies, loans, or outright payments. All this
occurs at the expense of our liberty, our basic freedom to decide what
is best for ourselves and our families. In the place of liberty, the
government substitutes a centralized bureaucracy, making decisions that
are supposedly best for the "common good".
Because of the
government's expansion in power and intrusion, it has become
advantageous for special interests to spend lavishly to lobby our
elected officials in an attempt to influence public policy that
provides a special benefit or competitive advantage. Steel companies
want tariffs on imported steel; labor unions want compulsory
membership; dairy farmers want price supports; defense contractors want
exclusive contracts; government programs want to retain their funding.
The more authority the federal government has to impact the free
market, and the more money the federal government is willing to spend
on such special interests, the greater the incentive for special
interests to lobby for special treatment; the greater also the
incentive for outright corruption.
The benefits of special
treatment by the government to the smaller factions can be quite great
when compared to the price paid by the public at large: milk
subsidies, for example, perhaps add only a percentage increase in the
price of milk, a percentage never shown to the consumer. Yet that same
price subsidy could mean a lot to large-scale providers of milk. Thus,
the incentive lies with the smaller interest to lobby the government
aggressively on behalf of its cause, while the individual consumer sees
no such direct significant incentive on behalf of his liberty.
Faced
with such a situation, it is easy to see why "lobbyists" and "special
interests" have become such negatively connotated buzzwords in
political campaigns. Yet the original purpose of petitioning the
government is fortunately not the sole purvey of those seeking
advantage at the expense of the liberty of others. Thankfully, seekers
of liberty certainly have lobbyists "working for [us] in Washington".
There are a few such lobbying organizations that stand out as working on behalf of individual liberty:
- The National Rifle Association petitions the government on behalf of the individual right to keep and bear arms.
- The National Right to Work Committee is lobbying the government to prevent compulsory labor union membership.
- Citizens Against Government Waste petitions to stop wasteful government spending of confiscated tax dollars.
- The Club for Growth lobbies on behalf of free market, growth-oriented economic policies.
- Americans for Tax Reform lobbies the government to pass
fairer, simpler tax plans that take less of our hard-earned paychecks
and that are easier to understand and apply.
This list is by no means exhaustive, and as individuals we may agree
or disagree with the respective agendas of one or all of the above
groups. The point is, however, that the groups are lobbying not on
behalf of a select few, but for expanding liberty for all.
Whether or not one agrees with a cut in the tax on capital gains, the
fact remains that cutting a tax increases liberty -- the individual has
more say in how the fruits of his own labor are spent. Whether or not
one believes that labor unions hurt competitiveness, the fact remains
that compulsory membership in an intrusion on individual liberty.
How many among us have a lobbyist working on our behalf in Washington? Thankfully, we all do. Thankfully, not all lobbyists are "special" interests -- some have individual liberty for every American in mind.