LOBBYISTS LOVE A VACUUM:

The Lobbying Web (JOHN HARWOOD, 8/02/09, NY Times)

The $133 million in lobbying expenditures by health industry interests in the second quarter of 2009 alone — the most of any sector by far, according to the Center for Responsive Politics — hardly sounds like the change Mr. Obama or his supporters had in mind. And in fact the strategic course the White House has chosen may have had the unintended effect of increasing the breadth and complexity of the battle involving those interests.

There are two reasons for that. The first is that Mr. Obama’s aides, having studied the failure of the health overhaul effort in 1993-94, decided to defer to Congress in assembling legislation rather than hand lawmakers a specific proposal as President Bill Clinton had done. That made Congress the pressure point from the start. And individual members of Congress, lacking the president’s clout or bully pulpit, are easier for lobbyists to influence.

Second, the Congressional route has yielded different proposals in various committees rather than a single administration plan. That, in turn, has muffled the clarity of the administration’s advocacy, while accelerating the lobbying scramble on Capitol Hill as affected interests fan out in pursuit of multiple targets.

Money is never silent in politics, but in the absence of leadership it talks loudly.

MORE:
John McCain says Barack Obama flunks bipartisanship ( MIKE ALLEN | 8/2/09, Politico)

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) says in an interview aired Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union” that President Barack Obama needs to “be more specific” about his prescription for health reform.

“I think they may have over-learned the lesson of the Clinton proposal in '93, where there were totally specific proposals.,” McCain said. “Now there's not enough. “At this point, I think the administration and the president has to be more specific."

Posted by Orrin Judd at August 2, 2009 8:36 AM