Lobbyists and Transparency

Regardless of where you live in the world, there seems to be a general consensus that the population of any given country wants to know what is going on in their government.  Put simply, this is called transparency, or the ability to view the actions that the government takes that directly affect the populace and how money is being spent to take those actions.  In the United States, the policies of the government are greatly influenced by lobbyists and government contractors who represent businesses throughout the country.  Some, as in the oil industry, are more powerful than others.  Millions upon millions of dollars are spent by these lobbyists and contractors every year to try and push policies that will positively impact their represented businesses and also to recieve a cut of the federal budget to help them in their efforts.  Currently, it is very difficult for the average American to see what kind of money is being spent by these lobbyists and corporations in D.C.   The money these lobbyists give goes anywhere from assisting in re-election campaigns to financing personal endeavors of elected officials.  As much as we don't want to hear it, these companies pour this money into the pockets of senators and congress persons to get what they want, and we the people, have no way to clearly view what is being spent. 

President Obama wants to change all of this and add increased transparency into the shroud of secrecy that engulfs lobbyists, government contractors and their millions of dollars.   The President would require disclosure of any direct or indirect political spending by contractors and lobbyists that exceeds $5000.  Seeing as the money spent directly affects how are taxpayer dollars are divided and spent, it makes perfect sense to me.  I personally feel that it has taken way too long to come to this sort of transparency.   Hopefully, this executive order will come to fruition.  As you guessed, there are already lobbyists and businessmen vowing to fight this tooth and nail to prevent this transparency from coming into effect.  They would prefer to keep blinders on Americans as to how they are spending their money in government.  What businesses and corporations spend within their own doors is their business being held liable only by their shareholders.  However, when money starts to affect policies and spending of American's money, we have a right to know about it.  Republicans have fought this transparency before and I am sure will be fighting it again.  They want to make government smaller, yet they have a deep seated desire to remain where they are and keep the money flowing into their pockets from lobbyists and corporations.  What Americans need these days more than anything else is a clearer view of how government runs and how their money is being spent.

I personally did not vote for President Obama and have objections to other policies of his such as the Health Care Bill, but this time, I am siding with him and throwing my support behind the increased transparency that he wants to inject into government, lobbyists, and government contractors.  Not all is negative with our government and it seems we may get a better view at how things are funded within the closed walls of congress.   We may now be able to see how money gets diverted in the federal budget to fund programs and policies that positively impact certain businesses and the correlation between businesses and government.   This could directly impact how we vote in the future, giving us more insight as to which political hopefulls are receiving money from businesses and what the businesses are looking for in return (although that last part still may be a little iffy).  We will have better information when going to the polls as to who we should vote for and who we should get out of office.   In any case, transparency will force businesses, lobbyists, and government contractors to watch who they are giving money to more closely and be a little more honest in their motives (hopefully).  If this comes to pass, this could start moving the government in the right direction, giving more control to the people in terms of elections and an increased ability to speak out against what they don't like.