Many congressmen corruptly and convertly take money and other favours from corporate lobbyists, who, in effect, write and/or buy the laws they want.    \n\nWhy are so few prosecuted?
130176
I would attribute the lack of prosecution to the proposition that cases are chosen by how blatant they are, how easily evidence can be gathered, and how successful the prosecution will be.\n\nThe above could be flavored by the fact that many (if not all) state attorneys are elected, usually running on party tickets.\n\nMost elected officials want to remain in office for as long as possible, so one hand washes the other.
137405
Many free-marketeers forget that corporations are government creations and although are treated as "legal persons", they have rights and powers beyond human beings, including limited liability for illegal and/or destructive actions.  Even libertarians and anarcho-capitalists want to limit or eliminate corporate charters.  Ultimately, it is our and our governments fault and responsibility.  I hope it's not too late.
103364
Because we don't elect Congressmen/women for their moral courage to do the right thing - they get elected because they have the most money to pay for the slickest campaign.\n\nIf the American electorate wasn't filled with quite so many suckers and those willing to be bribed by campaign promises to take from the rich and give to the supposedly "poor," then we might have members of Congress with some small degree of integrity.  But the chances of the system changing favorably in that direction are vanishingly small.
253413
As many as Congress lets them get away with.\n\n\nVote them OUT in NOVEMBER.
116674
I wish it were so simple. Yes, the people certainly are manipulated by the political elite. These elite are powered by funding from various sources. But clearly these sources differ for democrats and republicans.\nCorporate and evangelical are the most prominent backers of republican candidates, which leads to governmental support for these interests.\nDemocrats are supported relatively more by unions, education associations, environmental groups, for example, with consequent impact on their policies.\nThe powerless obviously are left out in the cold, and are not well represented by anyone.\nSo, the similarity between parties is that both are supported monetarily to support policies of special interests, and they do. The difference, however, in these policies is huge.\nJust as an example--the military-industrial complex and energy interests are prominent players in the Bush administration. Guess what corporations have made out like bandits? Halliburton, Exxon, etc.\nWould the democrats be selling off public lands? Probably not. Promoting legislation to weaken social security? No. Helping Halliburton? Probably not. Promoting legislation to strengthen public education funding? Probably.
30291
Because the senators and congressmen don't want to be accused of not bringing in the money for their state. You are absolutely correct, it should go by risk, but the equal distribution isn't that surprising with the government the way it is these days.
656675
there is a whole corporate structure built upon us which perpetuates the same system over and over.  It doesn't matter which party is in control.  The fact is that the politicians have been bought at varying degrees by the corporate world.  \nwhen they raise an issue of accountability, they don't really have the political will to see it through... because their deeper personal interests get in the way.
31509
K street in washington DC is where many lobbying firms have their offices.  the K street project is an effort by the republican party to have prominent republicans hired at senior positions in lobbying firms.  since lobbyists are private companies and not any branch of government, this is legal.  \n\naccording to the sourcewatch wiki, the project was started by Tom Delay and Grover Norquist.  Norquist is an influential republican political operative.  Delay was, until last year, speaker of the US house of representatives, but he was forced to step down when he was indicted for involvement in a Texas campaign-finance scheme.\n\nYou are probably hearing a lot about it because of the recent arrest of Jack Abramoff, who was an extremely influential lobbyist in washington.  apparently he has agreed to testify and cooperate with a federal corruption/kickback probe, in exchange for leniency from the court.  \n\ngiven the powerful political circles that Abramoff has moved in, it is likely that you are going to hear about a lot of political figures, probably those who are affiliated or had dealings with K-street lobbyists, being charged with taking bribes or kickbacks.\n\nif you ask me, i think it's a bad thing.  lobbying in general allows those with lots of money or power to have their votes count for more than those who don't.  it is antithetical to the democratic ideal; it leads to corruption and sleazy political fiascos.  while lobbying could be done in an open and ethical manner, it hardly is so.  \n\nthe k street project is a way for the GOP to game the system, in that it recognizes the undue influence of lobbyists and uses that influence for political gains.  i think it's a shameful admission of the fact that politicians have pretty much entirely stopped trying to behave at all ethically and will do anything for more power.
268459
because most of them (if not all) are corrupt. they'd rather keep thier money somewhere else and most often under someone else's name to avoid detection by thier political enemies or rivals.
228620
ALL politicians believe they are above the law.\nWE, THE VOTERS,  NEED TO FIRE THEM. HAVE IMPEACHMENTS AND RECALL ELECTIONS.
344215
politicians make the laws, and they always protect themselves. congress is exempt from every law it passes! and the big money ministers (aka televangelists) put so much money into the pockets of politicians that they are virtually above the law.
349673
"They give the politicians billions of bucks to represent us" lobbyists are bad not good, they do not "give the politicians bucks to represent us", they give the politicians money to represent whatever agenda the lobbyist is pushing, it's a subversion of the democratic process, you get government officials that are beholden to whomever pays them the most(to run a re-election campaign), not voters, lobbying should be abolished or outlawed IMO.
637051
When a corporation donates $100K to a candidate, they expect a return on that investment. Your friendly neighborhood Member of Congress is happy to provide that return, since it comes out of the National Treasury and not his (or her) own pocket.\n\nEliminate the system that makes Members so dependent on campaign contributions. Each candidate gets an equal amount of free TV time, free radio time, free newspaper space, free mailings, web page, etc. None of these annoying 30 second spots, just the daily speech or debate or whatever.\n\nIn short, alter things so that the Members are more concerned with directly winning votes via serving their constituents than with BUYING votes via advertising blitz.
401410
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ talks - and Bull*** walks!\n\nThe only time a congressman would not take money is if they misunderstood the question.
416082
the Jewish lobby is the largest and has more money for bribes etc than any other lobbying group in Washington and since there are over 60%Jewish senators and congress they don't need to buy a lot of votes as they know anyone who goes against the Jew's will not get elected nor reelected , just think of how many times a politician has made some remark about the Jew's and never won another election, John Conley from Texas is a good example, thing about it, also so many times our so called Representatives don't even read nor understand a law before they vote on it, also the fact that if some one wants a bill passed and there is no way to get  t thru , they will attach it to a bill that is very important and needs to be passed so when the one bill gets passed so do the other one, Pres, Reagan had to sign a bill that was the genocide treaty in the package with star wars , he needed star wars to save America
110581
Maybe when he actual does something illegal.  The constitution does protect politicians too, you know.  Just like you he's innocent until proven guilty.
116774
Rich corporations can afford to hire consultants who will go the the houses of congress and lobby (which includes favors, gifts, trades-scratch my back, I'll scratch yours-perhaps even monetary endowments to congress people and senators) in order to pass bills, etc, that help them line their coffers with cash, or in some other way benefit the corporation by making it easier to do what they want.  The everyday person obviously can't afford that, or probably doesn't even know that it is possible.\n\nAs for the popular theme in America these days of condemning what some other American believes as "non-American", is not only rude and absurd, but completely wrong and in fact, very un-American.  Obviously freedom of speech and religion and choice is part of what America is all about.  But fear creeps in and people go off half-cocked and begin trying to control the very thing that scares them.  People are more than a little crazy with that sort of thinking right now.  We really need to go back to a more free, spread love--not war, happy, let it be, sort of thinking.  Probably not possible, times are more sophisticated than that, but wouldn't it be nice??  Why would someone think that condemning anothers beliefs is a good thing??  Just makes me think they are completely close-minded and angry.  Why waste energy on such destructive thoughts and actions??  Love and understanding is the way, and yet so many people seem not to know.