You may be surprised to learn that we spend about $2 billion dollars a year on our dysfunctional Congress. However, it's even more surprising to learn that corporate lobbyists spend even more to buy off our federal lawmakers.

According to a recent article by Ezra Klein over at Vox.com, corporations outspend US taxpayers by more than half of a billion dollars. Yet, some people actually wonder why Congress is so beholden to their corporate masters.

The money we pay as taxpayers funds lawmakers' salaries, their staff, and the Congressional Budget Office and Congressional Research Service, which are the two agencies responsible for educating our lawmakers about an issue.

When corporations want Congress to vote in their favor, they do much more than just contribute to a lawmaker's next election. Lobbyists also use that stockpile of corporate cash to conduct their own research on issues, and use those industry-funded studies to convince members of Congress to vote in the corporation's best interest.

Although Congress has agencies to conduct research, there's no way that the CBO or CRS can compete with billion-dollar industries.

To make matters worse, Congress members don't only have to resist the corporate money – they often have to resist their former colleagues or staffers. These corporate lobbying firms scoop up every retired lawmakers or well-connected staffer they can get their hands on, and they pay more than the taxpayers ever could.

For the first time in our history, getting elected to Congress is more about the lobbying job of the future than it is about governing our country. It's time to end the revolving door between Congress and lobbying firms, and to get the corporate influence out of our nation's capital.

Let's keep up the fight to get money out and take our democracy back.

-Thom

(What do you think? Tell us here.)

Tonight on The Big Picture on RT TV at 7pm and 10pm... Why the TPP fast track deal must die / How the GOP is canabalizing it's own brand (check your local listings for stations or stream at RT or Free Speech TV, and catch past shows on Youtube)

Be sure to check out our newest video: RESTORATION - narrated by Leonardo DiCaprio & Thom Hartmann, directed by Leila Conners / Visit GreenWorldRising.org to check out all the videos: CARBON, LAST HOURS & GREEN WORLD RISING - narrated by Leonardo DiCaprio & Thom Hartmann, directed by Leila Conners

Friday's Daily Stack

In for Thom today, progressive commentators Danielle and Shane-O.

Hour One: Anything Goes...MEGA Worldwide
- Hal Sparks, The Hal Sparks Radio Program MEGA World Wide on WCPT

Article: "Comcast says it's over: It won't try to merge with Time Warner Cable" by Brian Stelter.

Article: "Cruz, vocal Lynch critic, skips confirmation vote" by Seung Min Kim.

Article: "Senate GOP Leaders Endorse Bill To Extend Obamacare Subsidies To 2017" by Sahil Kapur.

Article: "High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program"(HAARP) by Wikipedia.

Site: Leslie Marshall Show.

Article: "Bullock signs Montana campaign finance bill into law" by Charles S. Johnson.

Site: We Act Radio.

Site: XRAY.fm.

Article: "The American Genocide" by MELANICMAN.

Article: "Rep. Steve King Announces Bill to 'Restrain the Judges on Marriage'" by Lauretta Brown.

Article: "Petraeus Gets Wrist Slap for Sharing CIA Intel as Other Leakers Face Harsh Sentences" by Liz Fields.

Article: "Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement" (TPP) by EFF.

Book: A Fighting Chance by Elizabeth Warren.

Book: Unstoppable: The Emerging Left-right Alliance To Dismantle The Corporate State by Ralph Nader.

Article: "Corporations now spend more lobbying Congress than taxpayers spend funding Congress" by Ezra Klein.

Article: "For Alabama State Parks, 'closed means closed,' director warns" by Lee Roop.

Article: "Armenia marks centenary of mass killings by Ottoman Turks" by BBC.

Article: "Drone Strikes Killed American, Italian Hostages" by William McDonald.

Article: "1.5 Million Missing Black Men" by Justin Wolfers, David Leonhardt and Kevin Quealy.

Article: "Hans A. von Spakovsky".

Article: "Dismissal of U.S. attorneys controversy" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Did Mitt Romney Commit Voter Fraud?" by Stephanie Mencimer.

Article: "Paper: Ann Coulter Given 30 Days to Explain Vote Fraud Felony Allegation!" by Brad Friedman.

Talk Radio News Segment:
- Luke Vargas

Article: "White House Press Briefing by Josh Earnest, April 23, 2015 " by ENEWSPF.

Article: "UN Chief Considers 1915 Slaughters Of Armenians 'Atrocity Crimes'".

Article: "Mediterranean migrants crisis: EU triples funding" by BBC.

Article: "Watch: Cholene’s ThankList" by Ellen Ratner.

Site: Thank List.

Article: "Statue Of Liberty Evacuated" by Nicholas Salazar.

Site: United Church of Bacon.

Site: The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster.

Case: "Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission" (2010).

Site: Move to Amend

Article: "Food waste is a massive problem. Here’s how you can fix it." by Naomi Starkman.

Can Hillary win with progressives?
- John Nichols, The Nation Magazine

Article: "A Newcomer to Populism? Hillary Clinton Campaign Begs to Differ" by Amy Chozick.

Article: "If Clinton Is Serious About Economic Populism, She Should Come Out Against Fast Track" by John Nichols.

Article: "David Koch Signals a Favorite: Scott Walker" by Nicholas Confessore.

Monday on The Thom Hartmann Program, 12-3pm ET

I'll be talking with Michelangelo Signorile, host of the Michelangelo Signorile Show, about Marriage Equality, Religous Freedom laws.

And, the best of the rest of the news along with your calls right here on...

The Thom Hartmann Program, Occupying The Media 3 hours a day 5 days a week" for "we the people"

And don't forget...Democracy is NOT a spectator sport...it begins with you...

Please support the Hunter School, a unique therapeutic boarding school for young children diagnosed with ADHD, Anxiety, Sensory, Mood and related conditions...

Should surveillance under the Patriot Act be extended?

Vote here!

Hey Mr. President...Transparency Applies To The TPP Too!

TPP - A Grab-Bag For the World's Multinational Corporations

Are the Europeans Pushing for Regime Change in Greece?

Caroline Fredrickson - Why Do We Still Have Gender Based Inequality?

Caroline Fredrickson - How to Lift All Boats

Full Show 4/23/15: Rep. Alan Grayson Blasts the TPP

Thom discusses fast-track and the TPP with Rep. Alan Grayson and whether European officials are pushing for regime change in Greece with Mark Weisbrot of the Center for Economic and Policy Research. In tonight’s special Thursday edition of “Conversations with Great Minds” Thom talks with Constitution Society for Law and Policy’s Caroline Fredrickson, author of the new book “Under the Bus: How Working Women Are Being Run Over.”

Cell Phone Cameras: A Disruptive Technology...

Jail for Educators, Only Fines for Banksters!

Time for the Sheldon Adelson Primary...

Chocolate Good for Memory?

Did Freddie Gray Get a 'Baltimore Rough Ride'?

How FDR Handled the Mortgage Crisis...