Lobbying & Special Interests Quotes
In TR’s era, major corporations and trusts controlled many Federal, State, and local officials by various methods, the Most pernicious of which was bribery. Most major corporations had their own legislators, judges and executive officials.
The WWI veterans lobby was formed and they pressured Congress into authorizing a bonus of between $1 and $1.25 for each day of wartime service. However, the catch was that they would not be paid until 1945 unless they did, Hence the name for the bonus. The Bonus March on Washington would eventually march on Washington to get their pay while they were still alive. Finally, the bonuses were paid immediately after Franklin Delano Roosevelt assumed the Presidency even though he personally opposed paying it early. Congress passed the law over his veto.
Barbour was himself a lobbyist before he became a politician.
Wilson was an intellectual who did not rise in politics through the political system of the time and was not only somewhat shocked by the power of different pressure groups and economic forces, but was thwarted by many of them.
Begala was commenting on a newspaper expose that President Bush had appointed over 100 lobbyists to administrative government posts in the area for which they had previously lobbied.
