The Briefing Room

General Category => Politics/Government => Topic started by: Wingnut on February 14, 2019, 06:52:44 pm

Title: Ocasio-Cortez learned lobbyists pay people to avoid waiting in lines. She’s horrified.
Post by: Wingnut on February 14, 2019, 06:52:44 pm

By Eli Rosenberg
 
Eli Rosenberg
General assignment reporter covering national and breaking news
February 13 at 10:22 PM
It is one of Washington’s more peculiar practices, but most locals have long accepted it as a way of life: paying people to wait in line to get prime seats at Capitol Hill hearings.

Line-standing or line-waiting is a small but visible example of how money affects politics in D.C. — how people with resources buy access to lawmakers as they deliberate legislation. The practice, which is expensive but not illegal, has long been a popular one for lobbyists.

Enter Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), who is experiencing life as a legislator in Washington for the first time — and sharing her often-critical reactions to the experience on social media.

On Tuesday, she had just left a hearing on homelessness when she saw people queued in the hallway of the Rayburn House Office Building, waiting in line for a Committee on Financial Services meeting on banking and the marijuana industry, she wrote on Twitter. Her staff told her they were line-waiters.

“Shock doesn’t begin to cover it,” she wrote. “Apparently this is a normal practice, and people don’t bat an eye.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/02/14/ocasio-cortez-learned-lobbyists-pay-people-avoid-waiting-lines-hill-shes-not-pleased/?utm_term=.270b62b93f69 (https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/02/14/ocasio-cortez-learned-lobbyists-pay-people-avoid-waiting-lines-hill-shes-not-pleased/?utm_term=.270b62b93f69)

Title: Re: Ocasio-Cortez learned lobbyists pay people to avoid waiting in lines. She’s horrified.
Post by: goodwithagun on February 14, 2019, 07:24:40 pm

Which Congress people are they lining up for? Notice she didn’t post the offices.

Title: Re: Ocasio-Cortez learned lobbyists pay people to avoid waiting in lines. She’s horrified.
Post by: andy58-in-nh on February 14, 2019, 07:30:50 pm

There appears to be a rather short list of things that don't cause this garrulous little ditz to come down with a case of the vapors.... 

That said, it would seem that if you wanted to limit the influence of lobbyists, it would be desirable to reduce the power and scope of government, rather than actively agitating in favor of its expansion.

But then, AOC's meteoric popular rise has occurred in spite of an increasing body of evidence that the speed of her mouth exceeds that of her brain.

Title: Re: Ocasio-Cortez learned lobbyists pay people to avoid waiting in lines. She’s horrified.
Post by: Wingnut on February 14, 2019, 07:42:08 pm

She can go from zero to stupid faster than anyone I have seen in a long while, outside of news readers that is.

Title: Re: Ocasio-Cortez learned lobbyists pay people to avoid waiting in lines. She’s horrified.
Post by: Cyber Liberty on February 14, 2019, 07:51:04 pm

Quote from: The Ghost on February 14, 2019, 07:42:08 pm

She can go from zero to stupid faster than anyone I have seen in a long while, outside of news readers that is.

 888high58888 :beer:

Title: Re: Ocasio-Cortez learned lobbyists pay people to avoid waiting in lines. She’s horrified.
Post by: goodwithagun on February 14, 2019, 07:57:17 pm

Quote from: andy58-in-nh on February 14, 2019, 07:30:50 pm

There appears to be a rather short list of things that don't cause this garrulous little ditz to come down with a case of the vapors.... 

That said, it would seem that if you wanted to limit the influence of lobbyists, it would be desirable to reduce the power and scope of government, rather than actively agitating in favor of its expansion.

But then, AOC's meteoric popular rise has occurred in spite of an increasing body of evidence that the speed of her mouth exceeds that of her brain.

She genuinely believes that she is the government, and she is here to help.

Title: Re: Ocasio-Cortez learned lobbyists pay people to avoid waiting in lines. She’s horrified.
Post by: massadvj on February 14, 2019, 08:09:19 pm

Quote from: andy58-in-nh on February 14, 2019, 07:30:50 pm

There appears to be a rather short list of things that don't cause this garrulous little ditz to come down with a case of the vapors.... 

That said, it would seem that if you wanted to limit the influence of lobbyists, it would be desirable to reduce the power and scope of government, rather than actively agitating in favor of its expansion.

But then, AOC's meteoric popular rise has occurred in spite of an increasing body of evidence that the speed of her mouth exceeds that of her brain.

True. No one pays anyone to stand in line to see people with no power to violate other peoples' rights, unless of course they have some talent, which is decidedly not the case as it concerns congress.

Title: Re: Ocasio-Cortez learned lobbyists pay people to avoid waiting in lines. She’s horrified.
Post by: jmyrlefuller on February 14, 2019, 08:21:42 pm

I mean, she's not wrong... for once.

Title: Re: Ocasio-Cortez learned lobbyists pay people to avoid waiting in lines. She’s horrified.
Post by: Machiavelli on February 14, 2019, 08:51:37 pm

CNN from 2009: Homeless stand in for lobbyists on Capitol Hill (http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/07/13/line.standers/index.html)

Title: Re: Ocasio-Cortez learned lobbyists pay people to avoid waiting in lines. She’s horrified.
Post by: goodwithagun on February 14, 2019, 09:15:37 pm

Quote from: Machiavelli on February 14, 2019, 08:51:37 pm

CNN from 2009: Homeless stand in for lobbyists on Capitol Hill (http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/07/13/line.standers/index.html)

Once again, a millennial thinks she’s the first to do something.

Title: Re: Ocasio-Cortez learned lobbyists pay people to avoid waiting in lines. She’s horrified.
Post by: austingirl on February 14, 2019, 10:18:13 pm

What is the lifetime limit on outrage? I think she's already exceeded hers.