Obama's Lobby

ObamaCare's Gift To Lobbyists

Posted 08/26/2013 07:11 PM ET

Influence Peddling: Recall how Obama blustered about closing the revolving door of government and lobbyists? Well, ObamaCare has flung it wide open, as the people who wrote the law are now cashing in on their expertise.

For years, Obama complained about "the revolving door that lets lobbyists come into government freely" and use their time in government "to promote their own interests over the interests of the American people whom they serve."

Now, the Hill reports how Obama's signature law is making former government officials fabulously rich as corporate lobbyists and consultants. As the news site explains, "the voracious need for lobbying help in dealing with ObamaCare has created a price premium for lobbyists who had first-hand experience in crafting or debating the law."

Thus, ObamaCare reveals the gap between Washington and the rest of us.

In the real world, you get rich by making a better product, providing a better service, or doing things more efficiently. In Washington, you get rich by creating an unworkable, disastrously expensive "reform."

Then you hire yourself out as an expert who can explain it to businesses, or help them avoid it altogether.
ObamaCare also reveals the hypocrisy of big-government liberals who bemoan the influence of the Washington lobbyist industry. Yes, spending on lobbying shot up 128% to $3.3 billion from 1998 to 2012. But federal spending went up just as fast. 

Microsoft, for instance, did almost no lobbying until Clinton's Justice Department started attacking it. Now the software giant spends about $8 million a year on it.

Today, the Hill reports, "the health care law has generated steady work (for lobbyists), a trend that is likely to continue for years to come." Oh, goodie.

If government weren't so big and intrusive, companies wouldn't need an army of lobbyists to protect them. Instead, they'd spend those billions making better goods and services, or improving health care.