Lobbying Boom in Washington

Lobbying is a thriving business these days. The number of registered lobbyists in Washington has more than doubled since 2000 and "amount that lobbyists charge their new clients has increased by as much as 100 percent," the Washington Post reports. "The lobbying boom has been caused by three factors, experts say: rapid growth in government, Republican control of both the White House and Congress, and wide acceptance among corporations that they need to hire professional lobbyists to secure their share of federal benefits." According to the Post, political historians see this as a problem for U.S. democracy. "The growth of lobbying makes even worse than it is already the balance between those with resources and those without resources," Allan Cigler, a political scientist at the University of Kansas, told the Post.