III On Political Rights and Freedom
The United States has always boasted itself as the "model of democracy" and
hawked its mode of democracy to the rest of the world. In fact, American
"democracy" is always one for the wealthy and a "game for the rich."
The democratic elections in the United States, to a great extent, are driven
by money. During the mayoral election of New York City in November 2005,
billionaire Mayor Michael Bloomberg spent 77.89 million U.S. dollars of his
fortune for re-election. That came to more than 100 U.S. dollars per vote. The
election was termed by the Associated Press as the most expensive mayoral
re-election in history. In the race for governor of New Jersey, the dueling
multimillionaires spent 75 million U.S. dollars combined, with 40 million
dollars by Jon S. Corzine, who won the election. Taking into account the 60
million U.S. dollars he spenton a Senate seat in 2000, Corzine had spent 100
million U.S. dollars in five years for elections. According to a survey, in
Washington D.C. a U.S. senator needs about 20 million U.S. dollarsto keep the
seat in the Senate. The Washington Post criticized theU.S. political system in
an editorial: "But a political system that turns elective office into a bauble
for purchase is not a healthy one."
Decisions of the U.S. Congress and the Administration are deeply influenced
by money. It is known to all that in the United States, various firms and
interest groups hire public relations and consulting companies to lobby the
Congress and the Administration, spending money to influence their decisions and
win government contracts. On Jan. 4, 2006, mainstream U.S. media carried reports
on super lobbyist Jack Abramoff pleading guilty to three felony charges
including a conspiracy involving corruption of public officials and agreeing to
cooperate with U.S. prosecutors in investigating members of Congress and aides
suspected of corruption. The case is the largest power-for-money scandal in
American politics for several decades. It was reported that 20 members of
Congress and their aides have been involved in this unusual large-scale scandal.
But the Abramoff case is just a tip of an iceberg. According to the Washington
Post and the British Observer, lobbying has become a great growth industry with
huge profits in Washington. Currently, the number of registered lobbyists has
reached 34,750, that comes 60 to 1 compared with thetotal number of the U.S.
federal officials elected. Meanwhile, the lobbyists handle more than two billion
U.S. dollars of funds a year. Washington downtown's K Street with many lobbying
firms is called "the road to riches" and "the fourth largest power" next to the
President, the Congress and the Court. From 1998 to 2004, lobbyists spent 13
billion U.S. dollars to promote realization of their clients' wishes. In 2004,
2.1 billion U.S. dollars was spent on lobbying the federal government and the
Congress, and 3 billion U.S. dollars for elections of the President and members
of Congress in the United States. The USA Today revealed that since 2000, 5,410
trips of Congress members were financed by undisclosed sources and Congress
members have taken 16 million U.S. dollars in privately financed trips. It's a
"revolving door" for lobbyists toturn into politicians and retired politicians
from government service to engage in influence peddling in the private sector.
It was reported that since 1998 more than 2,200 former U.S. government employees
have become lobbyists; among them are 273 former White House staff members and
250 former Congress members and department heads from the Executive branch.
