#496 The People vs. Lobbyists

November 5, 2025·30 min·2 clips

Lobbying spending has nearly tripled to $4.44 billion, revealing who really owns Washington's tax policy.

The setup is pure FAIRtax shorthand. A Rubik's Cube does the work for tax-code complexity, Cheerwine nods to North Carolina, and the hosts get from small talk to grievance fast. Then the lobbyist math hits. They point to OpenSecrets and compare 1998's $1.45 billion in lobbying spending with 2024's $4.44 billion, treating the jump as the exhibit that matters. That is the can of worms. As campaigns get more expensive, they argue, people back home lose leverage while lobbyists gain more pull in Washington. They call that balance insane. The episode keeps circling one blunt question: if ordinary voters cannot match that kind of money, who is steering the federal budget and appropriations fight? Their answer is not flattering. Around 13,000 registered lobbyists, registration criteria, and the 20 percent lobbying threshold become evidence, not civics wallpaper. The tax code takes the blame. Their complaint is that complexity creates a cozy triangle between major interests, lobbyists, and elected officials, while people without the right contacts or lawyers have fewer ways around the big ones. That is the FAIRtax pitch in its usual shape. Replace the current system with a tax collected when people choose to consume, and the hosts see less room for tax-code favors to sell. The closing sketch spells it out. Under the current system, paying less sounds like earning less, giving to charity, knowing the right people, or hiring the right lawyer. Under FAIRtax, they say, consumption decides. It is a simple contrast, maybe intentionally too simple, between lobbyist-shaped complexity and the consumer choice they keep pushing. The tone stays dry and impatient. This episode is not admiring Washington process. It argues that the process is the problem.

As heard by us

An advocacy-minded hour that uses OpenSecrets figures to argue that lobbying and tax complexity reinforce each other.

Fair Tax Power Radio spends most of this hour on how tax complexity and lobbying feed one another, and it makes that case through OpenSecrets figures.

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Why you'd press play

You want the lobbying money trail around the tax code, laid out plain.

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