Prez and Lobbyists:
Here Today, Gone Never

Feb 1, 2010

Here’s what President Obama said in his first State of the Union speech:

“To close the credibility gap we must take action on both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue to end the outsized influence of lobbyists; to do our work openly and to give our people the government they deserve. That’s what I came to Washington to do.... And that’s why we’ve excluded lobbyists from policymaking jobs or seats on federal boards and commissions.

Here’s the reality:

Top officials in the Obama administration previously held executive positions at IBM, Raytheon, Chevron, Citigroup, Hartford Financial, Lehman Brothers, Alcoa, Blackstone, Wells Fargo, Prudential Financial. And those positions don’t include the revolving door between Goldman Sachs and the Treasury and the Federal Reserve.

These execs don’t worry about losing their Washington jobs – they have permanent jobs paying millions waiting for them back on Wall Street or in corporate headquarters.