Will change for the better ever rear it's ugly head?

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3. Washington Lobbying: Payoff Is "Astronomic"

Lockheed Martin has spent $55 million lobbying since 1999, and over that period has won about $90 billion in Pentagon contracts - for what Fortune magazine calls a return on political investment (ROPI) of an eye-popping 163,536 percent.

While that calculation assumes that lobbying is the only reason contracts are awarded in Washington, it remains true "that without a political ?salesforce' you can't close the deal," Matt Miller - a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress - writes in Fortune.

During that same period of time, Boeing spent $57 million on lobbying and received $81 billion in contracts, for a ROPI of "only" 142,000 percent.

In this context, the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal is a reminder of a phenomenon that gets little notice, Miller writes - a company's ROPI "is astronomically higher than any real investment it can make."

Indian tribes could pay more than $20 million to Abramoff and his cronies and still reap a generous return on their investment, because extending their casino contracts and getting tax breaks were worth far more.

Their ROPI was still huge, just not as great as is customary in Washington. Seen this way, Abramoff's "real crime was raising the price of political influence to market rates," notes Miller, who predicts:

"These remarkable returns, not any inherent venality, explain why the pseudo-reforms likely to come in Abramoff's wake will do nothing to stop the meltdown from recurring."

NewsMax.com site (e-mail, 05 Feb 06)