A new report has found that firms aided by the $700 billion Wall Street bailout spent more than $114 million on lobbying and political contributions for the 2008 election. The Center for Responsive Politics says the lobbying yielded a return of more than $295 billion through government spending and favorable legislation—a return of more than 250 percent.
Now that is what I call a return on investment! How can we think about competing for the ears of our representatives when we are up against these goliaths?
This is what must happen. Join Political Action groups. None in your area then let's form one. I am trying to get one off the ground; "The Peoples Lobby". Let's give the people (us) a voice!
Most (not all) representatives and senators are POLITICIANS! They have lost the EAR THAT HEARS. I called my Congressman (Mike McNulty) before the House vote on the first BAILOUT of Wall Street in September 2008. When the aid answered the phone and I expressed to him that I would like to make my views known, he simply said "...go ahead but he is already going to vote in favor of it...". If you might remember at the time all polls showed that the majority of Americans were opposed to it. The House of Representatives voted against it. CARL HULSE and DAVID M. HERSZENHORN in the September 29, 2008 New York Times story mentioned: Members of both parties, doing a quick political post-mortem, said those who voted no had encountered too much hostility for the bill among their constituents, and were worried that a vote in favor would be political suicide... My point is that the biggest contributors to McNulty over the years have been lobbyists for the Insurance, Finance and Real Estate sectors. So who did Mike McNulty place his vote for? His constituents or big business? See my point.
The Bill was tweaked, the Senate voted yeah (the Constitution actually states that all Bills must go through the House 1st. This was sidestepped) so the House followed suit. We, the people, didn't stand a chance.
Let's look at this from another point of view. The Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee - Sen. Christopher J. Dodd (D), Chairman. We can all remember how Senator Dodd implored us all to back this Bailout. Then look at this list of major contributors to the Senator from 2003 - 2008.

Contributor
Total
Citigroup Inc
$316,994
United Technologies
$265,400
SAC Capital Partners
$246,200
American International Group
$223,478
Royal Bank of Scotland
$218,000
St Paul Travelers Companies
$204,100
Bear Stearns
$201,000
Goldman Sachs
$180,200
Credit Suisse Group
$157,050
Morgan Stanley
$156,600
Merrill Lynch
$131,950
JPMorgan Chase & Co
$131,750
Lehman Brothers
$122,300
Hartford Financial Services
$114,850
KPMG LLP
$113,100
General Electric
$112,750
UBS AG
$110,800
Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu
$103,000
The Hartford
$94,550
Liberty Mutual Insurance
$85,850
Source: OpenSecrets.org

A nice peice of change for someone heading up a very powerful committee and who pushed hard for the Bailout! I'm sure some names on that list really pop out. Some Bailout recipients to be sure! How can we let this happen. But this is only one case. This is widespread and we the people just cannot compete with these amounts. We're to busy working and getting bilked by the companies on the list above.
For now in summation. Get Pissed off! Get involved! Get moving! Let's take back our country!