Lobbying

The government passes many laws and policies that have a critical impact on the citizens of the United States. Many people can be affected when these government officials begin to act in favor of their personal interests and not for what is best for the American people. Bribery is one of the reasons that this may happen. Bribery is defined as the crime of giving or taking money or some other valuable item in order to influence a public official (any governmental employee) in the performance of his/her duties (The Gale Group, Inc, 2008). In politics, bribery is completely illegal and comes with a harsh penalty, but there is something similar to bribery called lobbying that happens to be legal. Lobbying is defined as a group of persons engaged in trying to influence legislators or other public officials in favor of a specific cause (The Gale Group, Inc, 2008). Bribery and lobbying are both done with the intention of influencing government officials with the expectation of getting something in return. The only difference between lobbying and bribery is that bribery is more of a spoken agreement to perform the act and lobbying is more of an unspoken agreement basically saying, “I’m donating you all of this money, so you need to act in our favor”. Lobbying should be illegal in the United States because it gives the rich an unfair advantage over the middle class and poor, it influences government officials to make unfavorable decisions, and it has a negative impact on the American people.

Although lobbying is legal and lobbyists are required to register with the Secretary of the Senate and the Clerk of the House and must file disclosures of their lobbying activity according to the Lobbying Disclosure Act of 1995, it does not mean it is ethical, nor does it mean it is not a cover up for the illegal activity of bribery (Investopedia, 2012). Lobbying gives the rich people and business of this country an unfair advantage when it comes to controlling government officials...