…the biggest welfare recipients are using our own money to lobby us for more. According to the Associated Press, “The top 10 recipients of the government’s $700 billion financial bailout spent about $9.5 million on federal lobbying during the first three months of the year.” Lead among them is GM, which burned through $2.8 million in lobbying in the first quarter alone.
Are we really that surprised, honestly? How long have us free marketeers been saying, “If you reward something, you’ll get more of it.” GM and the others did their cost-benefit analysis, and they rationally figured that their most profitable venture was lobbying Congress. So they did more of it. And they’ll continue to do so.
So bend over, America.
