Why is there a revolving door between Congress & lobbyists?

Added: 2026-05-25

[00:00:00]Pretty big vote coming up, Senator Warren. You do know it's illegal to pay senators to vote a certain way.

[00:00:06]>> Right. Yeah, I would never do that because that's bribery, but maybe we could figure something out.

[00:00:11]>> I've seen you before. Didn't you offer a congressman a big fancy job with a big salary after voting your way over and over for years?

[00:00:21]>> I see what you're throwing down.

[00:00:23]No. Isn't that illegal? It should be.

[00:00:26]It's actually kind of industry standard.

[00:00:28]>> And you want to give these guys big gifts, too? You can't do that. What? Me?

[00:00:33]No, no, no. That's bribery, but um a high-paying job >> If a federal judge ruled in favor of a big company and then took a very fancy job with that company nobody would trust the honesty of the ruler.

[00:00:48]>> Yeah, I wouldn't either cuz that judge was definitely paid off.

[00:00:52]>> Then why are you allowed to offer members of Congress high-paying jobs as lobbyists?

[00:00:57]>> Oh, I see the confusion here. No, I actually can't do that.

[00:01:03]Explicitly.

[00:01:03]>> But it's understood that way. If they scratch your back, you'll scratch theirs.

[00:01:08]>> Elizabeth.

[00:01:10]Yeah, it's just kind of understood. 30 to 50% of Congress goes into lobbying or related jobs after they retire.

[00:01:16]>> Aren't you worried that you're incentivizing current members of Congress to cater to certain industries that they're supposed to be regulating just with the idea of a high-paying job later on?

[00:01:28]>> No, that's exactly the point.

[00:01:30]>> Wow. Anything else I should know? No, I don't think so. Just uh loosen up those regulations and you should have a lucrative retirement.

[00:01:40]>> Sorry, no.

[00:01:41]But you just helped me with my new bipartisan bill that will ban members of Congress from ever becoming lobbyists.

[00:01:49]>> Oh.

[00:01:51]Uh I should probably take a look at that. I think we should carve out something for like shadow lobbying. Nope. It bans all members of Congress from any kind of lobbying, period.

[00:02:02]For how [sighs] long? For life.

[00:02:05]Oh.

[00:02:06]Well. Oh. These are just my overnight.

[00:02:09]I'm just going to put that away.

[00:02:11]Uh yeah, that's a good idea.