HillLobbyist

You know...I don't know that I can really answer that without some real research. I'd say the majority of lobbying is for relatively mundane niche issues. I took meetings with cement manufacturers who wanted more sidewalks because it means more jobs for their workers. I took meetings with glass bead manufacturers because they wanted their reflective products in lane striping. I met with people who wanted schools to use more astroturf because their clients made it. Truckers who didn't want recorders in their trucks. People who wanted a week named after their particular cause. Is any of that bad for the country? I don't know. I don't think so.

Definitely had meetings with people who's causes I was objected to. Wood pulp manufacturers who wanted less air quality regulations. Always blew those off though!

I have to be a little careful about specific examples, but members vote all the time because a group asks them to even though it does not benefit their constituents in anyway, and may be contrary to what the bulk of their constituents want. that's why so many democrats have started supporting keystone. Labor pushes them to support it so that a few workers in the Midwest can get temporary jobs and labor can claim a win as "job creators".

House of Cards is not a political drama. It is a drama set in a political backdrop, which is an important distinction, I think. Watch the first 3 episodes of VEEP. The plot line with clean jobs/plastics is far, far more accurate.

In this economy? I am sure people would lobby for reddit for 40k a year. But if you want a skilled lobbyist with good connections to offices and great relationships in DC to help give its users a real footprint? 70k-100k.

Do we want more jobs at the risk of the proven negative health risks from boilers - like increased cases of cancer, increases in miscarriages, asthma rates in children...?

It's a balance. The thing is, those employers can often times foot the bill for new infrastructure. They just don't want to because it affects their bottom line. Fuck their bottom line though. The health and safety of children > your shitty paper factory.