Someone always makes this kind of comment and I've always found it being pretty middle-brow. I think there's a classic comment that the USA spends more on potato chips than on lobbying.
I think the best explanation is that there's a pushing a rope phenominum where there's still a limit on the amount of money the American political corruption system can absorb.
We have long had robust laws that prevent people outright paying for political or regulatory outcomes (which used to be much stronger under honest services). We also had robust laws limiting the amount of campaign contributions.
As that system has been torn down, we've seen the amount of money flowing in increase.
The thing is, lobbying isn't literally a bribe. Lobbying involves all sorts of expensive activities, like compiling reports, doing research, etc in addition to the more sketchy semi-bribe stuff.
All that adds up. How many FTE lobbyists is a few million dollars? It just doesn't seem like all that much if they are trying to do a hard core lobbying campaign.
> there's still a limit on the amount of money the American political corruption system can absorb.
Wikipedia tells me [1] to win a seat in the House of Representatives (one of 435) costs on average $2.79 million, while a seat the Senate (one of 100) costs $26.53 million.
So the political system can absorb $3.8 billion in 'donations' from 'supporters'. That might sound small compared to nvidia's $4.3 trillion market cap, but to a lot of folks $3.8 billion is serious money.
And that's just spending by the winners - often there will be a loser who spent almost as much.
I think the best explanation is that there's a pushing a rope phenominum where there's still a limit on the amount of money the American political corruption system can absorb.
We have long had robust laws that prevent people outright paying for political or regulatory outcomes (which used to be much stronger under honest services). We also had robust laws limiting the amount of campaign contributions.
As that system has been torn down, we've seen the amount of money flowing in increase.