Today's lesson focus is on interest groups or lobby groups. By the end of class you will know what they are, how they operated and be able to identify the particulars of their influence.
Go to www.opensecrets.org
click on lobbying on the left hand side of the page.Read
click on ranked sectors. Read and look at all the different sectors. Click around.
click on top spenders. read and look around.
post a one paragraph comment on the blog explaining one specific interest group and their influence/ interest
I found it believable that Pharmaceutical Research was one of the top spenders as a lobbyist because they generate so much money already from all of the drugs they sell. In 2009, Pharmaceutical spent over 25 million dollars. I also saw that the highest spending sector was Finance/Insurance/Real Estate. I can agree with this because I know that there is a lot of money dealt with insurance with things like car insurance and life insurance.
ReplyDeleteWhen i was looking around i found out the finance has the highest amount spent. It also keeps increasing. The largest amount of money spent in the finance section is for insurance. I also found that the lowest amount spent went to lawyers and lobbyists. I think it is interesting that AT&T spent more money in 2005 and 2006 then it has in the past year, because they have been inventing better and better phones. It amazes me how much money all of the large companies spend.
ReplyDeleteWhen I looked at the pages i found out that the US chamber of commerce was the top spender. I found out that since 09 it has decreased. I think this is because the economy. The last top spender is Pfizer Inc. They have a total amount of $107,267,268. Just like the Us chamber of commerce it have decreased sine 09.
ReplyDeleteOne of the top spenders is the US chamber of commerce. This year they have contributed $738,825,680 dollars in order to try and persuade candidates to vote in their favor. They do this so that they are able to go through with their plan and benefit the businesses. I was surprised to find that AT&T has contributed more than Boeing Co. This was strange to me because I thought that Boeing might want to spend more in order to benefit themselves.
ReplyDeletei found that the top spenders in lobbying are the u.s. chamber of commerce and aarp. i do find this believable they hire lobbyist to help their causes and to help others. for example it is important for old people to get their retirement money so it is not surprising that aarp is one of the top spenders. i also learned that pharmaceutical companies spent over more than a billion more each year on research and development than the next leading spender uses for their company each year.
ReplyDeleteIt was interesting to she how much money single schools spend towards lobbyists. the university of california spent over a million dollars alone. Why are they spending so much on lobbyists instead of putting it towards there school. I learned that even though companies are not bribing politicians directly it is still the outline of what they are doing.
ReplyDeleteU.S. Chamber of commerce i noticed was listed first in top lobbying spenders.They're total spending was $738,825,680. They support businesses and are against anything that harms the businesses like high taxes. in 2010 their annual lobbying was over 100 million. Their lobbying activity can go up and down over the years depending on how much attention the federal goverment gives to their issues.
ReplyDeleteThe US Chamber of Commerce is the top lobbying spender that is 495,548,180 more dollars then the second most spender, American Medical Assn. The US Chamber of Commerce spent 131,810,000 dollars alone on business associations. AT&T is the top lobbying spender for phone company's, Verizon is second.
ReplyDeleteIt just seems ridiculous how much these lobbyists can spend just to get what they want. Lobbyists from Exxon Mobil spent $151,286,942 in just the past twelve years. It's just astounding how much money these groups are able to pull out of thin air to fight for their cause. Especially since we're in the midst of an all time low in our national deficit.
ReplyDeleteAs I was looking around, I noticed that AARP was one of the top spenders. I thought it was interesting that in 2005 there was the most money spent, and the following years have been almost less than 10 million dollars less than in 2005. This may be because ever since the economy has gotten worse, more people have not been able to retire in order to support their families.
ReplyDeleteI found that the American Medical Assn was the second ranked top spender. This didn't shock me because i figured that anything that had to do with health issues would be spending a lot of money. What did shock me about this though was how much they do spend. $243,277,500 have been spent on this. One thing i didn't expect was that the top ranked sector would be agribusiness.
ReplyDeleteI was shocked at some of the extremely high amounts of money that were getting spent by lobbying clients. The US Chamber of Commerce has spent around 738 million. I was shocked to see that AT&T was on the top spender list. I also learned that the college that I'm going to, Penn State, has spent around 430,000 dollars. I didn't realize that people were spending so much money paying lobbyists. If it benefits the company, it would be worth it though.
ReplyDeleteGeneral Motors is the world's second-leading manufacturer of cars and trucks. The company also offers auto loans to consumers which donates most of its money to Republicans. The company lobbies on plenty of issues that are important to automakers. Also, it has been helping legislation tighten up personal bankruptcy laws. GM' total cost of lobbying in 2010 was $6,570,000 and they hired 72 lobbyists. Their top candidates were John Dingell and Debbie Stabenow. both democrats.
ReplyDeleteChelsey Benedek~
The automotive industry spends a pretty large chunk of money for Lobbying, In the past couple years the amount of money spent by the large automotive companies has decreased because of the current economic situation in the country. The main things that ford lobby's for is transportation and infrastructure funding and the Ford motor company are advocates of the governments efforts for new energy sources to increase fuel efficiency. Ford supports both democratic and republican views, but the majority of there views do lean towards the republican side. i also found it interesting that 4 out of the 5 top congressmen are from Michigan which is interesting since the majority of many american car companies, especially the ford motor companies head quarters and original location are in Detroit, Michigan.
ReplyDeleteBoeing pushed for Congress to reauthorize the Export-Import Bank, which gives loan guarantees to businesses. In 2001, Boeing got $2.5 billion from the bank, From this export-import bank they supported. This is just one of the many ways lobbyist push their congressmen to get what they want. I found this to be very interesting because Boeing is so close and so important to Delaware county. In 2010 Boeing spent $13,180,000.
ReplyDeleteI find it surprising that the US Chamber of Commerce has spent more than other lobbies such as the American Medical Association, General Electric, and AARP combined. It is shocking to know how small businesses are able to spend so much money as a whole.
ReplyDelete(AMA + GE + AARP) = 677,609,564
US Chamber of Commerce = 738,825,680
And US Chamber of Commerce is still growing
one of the top spenders in lobbying is the verizon communications. In 2010 the total expedintures was16,750,000.Verizon Communications announced that it has made an agreement with Cisco to deliver cloud based unified communication services for its customers. Over the past 10 years they have continued to spend more money.
ReplyDeleteKeith Greene
I am not surprised that General Electric was also at the top of the list of spenders due to the fact that it helps with mostly every industry. It manufactures aircrafts, locomotives, household appliances, light bulbs, television networks, and many more. It is interesting that from 1998 to 2009 the amount of spending for General Electric has been under 30 million dollars, but in 2010 it has sky rocketed to nearly 40 million.
ReplyDeleteWhat i found was that lobby members make a lot of money for being advocates for different issues, but all the money that goes towards the lobbying is to much. This money that is for lobbying is all just to influence a certain issue. I was interested in AT&T Inc. and their lobbying. The total spent on lobbying for AT&T was $12,485,078 and the number of lobbyists hired was 91. Since AT&T is such a large company, with 54 million subscribers, the amount of money spent on lobbying definitely benefits the company.
ReplyDeleteIm not surprised at all that gasoline, computers and pharmaceutical businesses are some of the top ranked sellers. Everyone is in to the new technology and always reach for the newest device out no matter what the price. Also with the Pharmaceutical side there is always, in every second of everyday, someone who needs some type of medicine. This all costs a lot of money and is believable because of how many people are in need. I was surprised that electric utilities were higher ranked than telephone utilities. I thought telephones would of been more than electric.
ReplyDeletei saw that the top spender, the us chamber of commerce, decreased since 2009. i think the reason why it decreased was because if the poor economy. but the general electric increased since 2009. this confused me because wouldn't the general electric decrease because of the poor economy? also i saw that ATT decreased and leveled out after 2006. this kind of makes sense because of the new expensive technology that they are selling now and only so many people can afford because of the poor economy, so it levels out.
ReplyDeleteBillions of dollars each year are spent to lobby Congress and federal agencies. Currently, the US Chamber of Commerce is the top lobbying group. They are a group of businesses that are against anything that can hurt other businesses. For example, the Comcast Corp. payed a lot of money to support many bills that the US Chamber of Commerce's lobbyists were trying to pass. I think it is interesting to see how much money is spent over the years by every business.
ReplyDeleteAlthough tobacco is a major contributor to our economy, it has become much harder to find those who actually support it. One of the main reasons behind this is because its cancer causing products became toxic. Tobacco industries are still fighting to promote tobacco, for example Reynolds American gave 82% of their money to Republicans.
ReplyDeleteWhile looking at opensecrets.org i noticed that the US Chamber of Commerce was by far the largest spender in lobbying. The have spent $738,825,680 total, when the next highest is American Medical Assn spending a total of $243,277,500. One of the lower spenders that i would expect to be much higher up on the rankings is Exxon Mobil, coming in at 11th place. Plus, Verizon was lower on the rankings then AT&T which didn't seem possible to me.
ReplyDeletethe tv/music/movie industry has favored the democratic side of the elections since 1990. they spent 28.9 million dollars for influencing lawmakers and policies on the side of the debate. they show they're lyalty to this side of the debate.
ReplyDeletechris drass
I found that the US Chamber of Commerce ranked first in the top spenders chart. This year they spent a total of $738,825,680, to try and force people to take their vote and agree with them. I am very surpised to see how low on the chart Boeing Company is ranked. I personally thought they would me much higher, since the company deals with air craft in the miltary. I dont know just feel like that is way more important then half of things that ranked before it.
ReplyDeleteChelsea Savage