Ted Cruz And Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Team Up To Ban Lawmakers From Lobbying

[JA]

Ted Cruz And Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Team Up To Ban Lawmakers From Lobbying

"Let's make a deal," said Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y.
"You're on," agreed Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas.

The two lawmakers who have often been at odds found common ground in a place that often highlights polarizing opinions: Twitter. That's where Cruz and Ocasio-Cortez vowed to set aside their differences and work on new lobbying restrictions for lawmakers. Now an unlikely coalition is forming around their joint effort.

[...]

At least one politician from each side of the aisle came forward to support the pact: Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, tweeted, "IN," and Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, offered to lead or co-sponsor a bill in the House.

[T'Chenka]

Lobbyists lobby politicians, but who or what are these politicians being referred to here lobbying? Each other?

[Fuzzy Bear Loves Christian Missionaries]

I'm assuming that this has to do with lawmakers taking cushy lobbying jobs after leaving office.

Like these guys.

Former Rep. Tom Downey (D-NY) was a Long Island liberal, at whose fundraiser I attended in 1982 while extremely intoxicated, lol.  Former Rep. Ray McGrath (D-NY) was a Long Island Republican who had a relatively conservative voting record, but was never an ideologue; he was part of the Nassau County GOP machine that looked askance at "true believers" and ideologues.  Downey was a guy who was elected to the Suffolk County Legislature at 22, and to Congress at 25; he actually said as a High School Assembly I was at that he wanted to be President one day, and spoke of his days as a "Clean Gene" in New Hampshire campaigning for Eugene McCarthy, celebrating driving LBJ into retirement.

This is where young idealists grown old go.   

[dead0man]

I'm torn.  There is a clear problem here, I'm just not sure this is the way to go about it.  And loopholes seem easy...
"I'm not a lobbyist, I work for Widgets Incorporated as a consultant and I occasionally play golf or otherwise hang out with my old friends in politics, what's wrong with that?"

[Progressive Pessimist]

Ted Cruz opposes lobbying? Really? That's even more shocking than Ocasio-Cortez working with him.

[Indy Texas 🇺🇦🇵🇸]

An unintended consequence of this might be the return of the patronage system to federal government.

If outgoing members of congress are closed off from lobbying, they could just ask for a federal government job when there is a president of their own party.

Suppose you get elected to the House at age 36. At age 48, you are defeated for reelection.

What exactly are you supposed to do for work?

If you're trying to apply for a "regular" job, you're going to encounter age discrimination. Employers may be reluctant to hire a former congressman for fear of political backlash from customers or other employees or management. (Ex. Imagine if Ilhan Omar left Congress and took a job at Target - they'd probably have to turn the place into a fortified security zone.) If you were to return to whatever job/field you had prior to entering politics, you'd face the disadvantage of having a long gap in relevant experience.

The only people who can really pull that off are self-employed professionals like lawyers and doctors, or people who owned a business, put someone else in charge of it when they got elected and can now just go back to managing that.

This just seems like yet another way to make it even harder for non-wealthy people to run for office without ruining themselves financially.

[junior chįmp]

Sounds unconstitutional

[Grassroots]

I appreciate the bipartisanship but why them? Both Cruz and AOC don't really fit the leading support for a bill like this. But I support this anyways despite the constitutional concerns I have over it.

[Indy Texas 🇺🇦🇵🇸]

I appreciate the bipartisanship but why them? Both Cruz and AOC don't really fit the leading support for a bill like this. But I support this anyways despite the constitutional concerns I have over it.

Of course they do. They're both ideologues with big chips on their shoulders, and neither of them will do any lobbying after they retire anyway because their personalities and their records indicate they'd be horrible at it.

[SteveRogers]

There’s very little chance that a lifetime ban passes constitutional muster. You can’t ban a class of people from petitioning the government.