In the United States Organized Political Lobbying does more harm than good.

In 2009 the lobbying industry cost 3.18 billion dollars on the Federal level alone. It is because the lobbying industry continues to use billions of dollars to sway politicians and subvert democratic institutions that we stand PRO. Resolved: in the United States organized political lobbying does more harm than good. Contention 1: lobbyist allows corporations to bypass the influence the gov't. From Dan Morgan a writer for the Washington Post March 2005. Business lobbyists are dusting off dozens of long stall legislative proposals in hopes of Cashing in a new pro business climate…. Pushing Congress last week, the quickly did away with workplace safety rules that had been 10 years in the making, and moved on to a bankruptcy reform bill. But even as they savored the triumphs , business representatives looked ahead to passing a broader agenda that would pare back environmental and land use regulations, limit cooperate liability for faulty products, and rewrite rules protecting the privacy of patients' medical records. Lobbyists are paid by special interest groups who have no regard for the good of the country. Lobbyists pushed for the financial deregulation that caused the housing crisis, and food companies lobbied to get subsidies for their meat packing plants. Lobbyists allow wealthy corporations to sway governments in their favor, all while harming the rest of us. Contention 2: too much money is wasted on the lobbying industry. From the center for responsive politics: In 1998 Federal lobbying groups recruited over 10,000 lobbyists spending over 1.4 billion dollars. In 2009 those numbers jumped to 13,000 lobbyists spending over 3.47 billion dollars. Though these numbers stand true, there is far more lobbying done with unregistered lobbyists than registered. It is estimated that there are at least 100,000 lobbyists lobbying in Washington, only about 15,000 are actually registered lobbyists. Those registered have to file spending reports so the billions of dollars reported that only about 15% of the money that is really passed to Congress for legislative favors. All this money is being wasted, this money could be spent on improving a company's economic needs, such as improving the amount of production and improving the overall quality of their product. Contention 3: Lobbyists undermine our democratic system by only giving a voice to those with money. Senly for economic and political weekly from 2002 writes Modern democracy has come to be dominated not by the voice power of the people, but the money power of the rich commanding both voice power and muscle power. The moneyed in society use the voice power of the media and lobbyists to influence those in gov't. The voices of such representatives rarely represent the true voice of the people. In a democracy each person should have an equal say in government, but when rich corporations can just hire lobbyists to influence politicians then others are often marginalize for ignored. In his farewell address, George Washington warned us of the many problems we would face if we were not cautious and vigilant. One of the very things he mentioned was special interest groups. Guess who was right. Because Lobbyists distract representatives from their true responsibilities, Lobbyists take away political power from the average citizen, and undermine our democratic system, I urge a PRO vote.