<story><title>Two Congressional Staffers Who Helped Write SOPA Become Entertainment Lobbyists</title><url>http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20111209/10151917022/shockingly-unshocking-two-congressional-staffers-who-helped-write-sopapipa-become-entertainment-industry-lobbyists.shtml</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>Newgy</author><text>There are some similar provisions in U.S. law, but they are easily circumvented by &quot;consulting&quot; rather than &quot;lobbying.&quot;&lt;p&gt;Additionally, the U.S. Constitution does not really permit blanket restrictions on employment for individuals. Among other things, this ties in with the 13th Amendment that bans slavery and indentured servitude.  You also have a free speech right to lobby.&lt;p&gt;In fact, the current restrictions are probably unconstitutional.&lt;p&gt;Anyway, these measures are treating a symptom.  The real problem is that the federal government is vastly too large in size and scope.  Reduce the power and programs run by the federal government, and radically simplify the tax code, and you&apos;ll dry up the opportunities for corruption.</text></item><item><author>_delirium</author><text>To attempt to avoid this, Canada has a category of &quot;designated public office holders&quot; whose post-office employment is restricted in various ways for five years, in an attempt to avoid them becoming lobbyists or being paid by lobbyists immediately after leaving office. Sort of like a 5-year noncompete agreement for politicians, perhaps.</text></item><item><author>DevX101</author><text>You&apos;ll never find a politician worth his/her salt taking cash from a company.&lt;p&gt;The way its done is to push through favorable laws for a company with a wink and a nod, and then come back and work for the company as a consultant/lobbyist with a minimum 1 million dollar per year salary.&lt;p&gt;Billy Tauzin did this quite well with PhRMA (lobbying group for pharma companies). He headed up the committee which oversees drug companies and led the push to pass the Medicare Prescription Drug Bill which was quite favorable to drug companies.  The bill among other things allows drug companies to set an arbitrary price for the drug without Medicare having the option to negotiate on prices.&lt;p&gt;As soon as the bill was passed he retired from Congress to lead PhRMA with a $2.5 million USD per year salary. Mission complete.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>sunahsuh</author><text>&amp;#62; Anyway, these measures are treating a symptom. The real problem is that the federal government is vastly too large in size and scope. Reduce the power and programs run by the federal government, and radically simplify the tax code, and you&apos;ll dry up the opportunities for corruption.&lt;p&gt;And that would only treat the problem of government corruption while exacerbating issues of social inequality. I&apos;m all for fiscal responsibility but the empirical evidence seems to suggest that cutting social services and public good projects leads to net harm for society as a whole (see: Texas.)&lt;p&gt;As a whole, I find the prevalence of libertarianism among tech types curious. As a whole they (we) are often rationalist and evidence-based in orientation but the libertarian position derives more from principle than empirical evidence -- the same charges many libertarians would level against religion-based politics.</text></comment>
<story><title>Two Congressional Staffers Who Helped Write SOPA Become Entertainment Lobbyists</title><url>http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20111209/10151917022/shockingly-unshocking-two-congressional-staffers-who-helped-write-sopapipa-become-entertainment-industry-lobbyists.shtml</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>Newgy</author><text>There are some similar provisions in U.S. law, but they are easily circumvented by &quot;consulting&quot; rather than &quot;lobbying.&quot;&lt;p&gt;Additionally, the U.S. Constitution does not really permit blanket restrictions on employment for individuals. Among other things, this ties in with the 13th Amendment that bans slavery and indentured servitude.  You also have a free speech right to lobby.&lt;p&gt;In fact, the current restrictions are probably unconstitutional.&lt;p&gt;Anyway, these measures are treating a symptom.  The real problem is that the federal government is vastly too large in size and scope.  Reduce the power and programs run by the federal government, and radically simplify the tax code, and you&apos;ll dry up the opportunities for corruption.</text></item><item><author>_delirium</author><text>To attempt to avoid this, Canada has a category of &quot;designated public office holders&quot; whose post-office employment is restricted in various ways for five years, in an attempt to avoid them becoming lobbyists or being paid by lobbyists immediately after leaving office. Sort of like a 5-year noncompete agreement for politicians, perhaps.</text></item><item><author>DevX101</author><text>You&apos;ll never find a politician worth his/her salt taking cash from a company.&lt;p&gt;The way its done is to push through favorable laws for a company with a wink and a nod, and then come back and work for the company as a consultant/lobbyist with a minimum 1 million dollar per year salary.&lt;p&gt;Billy Tauzin did this quite well with PhRMA (lobbying group for pharma companies). He headed up the committee which oversees drug companies and led the push to pass the Medicare Prescription Drug Bill which was quite favorable to drug companies.  The bill among other things allows drug companies to set an arbitrary price for the drug without Medicare having the option to negotiate on prices.&lt;p&gt;As soon as the bill was passed he retired from Congress to lead PhRMA with a $2.5 million USD per year salary. Mission complete.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>shadowfiend</author><text>Yes, because once all that power exists at the state level instead, the companies will all surrender and stop trying to incentivize officials into giving them a competitive advantage.&lt;p&gt;No, more likely they&apos;ll just move to the state level. And it&apos;ll probably cost them less at that, since state officials are significantly less visible and will have less power.</text></comment>