You elected them to write new laws. They're letting corporations do it instead.

[CousinIT]

https://www.usatoday.com/in-depth/news/investigations/2019/04/03/abortion-gun-laws-stand-your-ground-model-bills-conservatives-liberal-corporate-influence-lobbyists/3162173002/

An investigation by USA TODAY, The Arizona Republic and the Center for Public Integrity
Rob O'Dell and Nick Penzenstadler, USA TODAY
Updated 5 hours ago

Each year, state lawmakers across the U.S. introduce thousands of bills dreamed up and written by corporations, industry groups and think tanks.

Disguised as the work of lawmakers, these so-called “model” bills get copied in one state Capitol after another, quietly advancing the agenda of the people who write them.

A two-year investigation by USA TODAY, The Arizona Republic  and the Center for Public Integrity reveals for the first time the extent to which special interests have infiltrated state legislatures using model legislation.

USA TODAY and the Republic found at least 10,000 bills almost entirely copied from model legislation were introduced nationwide in the past eight years, and more than 2,100 of those bills were signed into law.

The investigation examined nearly 1 million bills in all 50 states and Congress using a computer algorithm developed to detect similarities in language. That search – powered by the equivalent of 150 computers that ran nonstop for months – compared known model legislation with bills introduced by lawmakers.

The phenomenon of copycat legislation is far larger. In a separate analysis, the Center for Public Integrity identified tens of thousands of bills with identical phrases, then traced the origins of that language in dozens of those bills across the country.

Model bills passed into law have made it harder for injured consumers to sue corporations. They’ve called for taxes on sugar-laden drinks. They’ve limited access to abortion and restricted the rights of protesters.

[Igel]

1. It's pretty standard.

Lots of laws in the last 30 years have been written by non-legislators. They're usually edited by staffers.

They're written by "lobbyists", here intended to mean " one who conducts activities aimed at influencing or swaying public officials and especially members of a legislative body on legislation." Some are in non-profits; some are in for-profits. We object when it advances one group's interests, but chortle when it's another's.

The ACA was written largely by "lobbyists", just not "industry lobbyists" (where "industry" is taken to mean the health-care industry, not the health advocacy "industry" ). But neither is neutral. It's just whether they're in-group or out-group, whether you think that "of course they're disinterested, they think like me" or "of course they're biased and greedy bastards, they don't think like me."

[Hortensis]

2. No, WE did not. Any article pushing this fake

similarity and equalization between the parties represents a huge part of the problem.

The GOP Has been taken over by the vast right wing conspiracy to embed corruption into our systems, and to replace liberalism with hard-core conservatism, and that very much includes passing this kind of legislation.

This article is poisonous anti-Democrat propaganda. What are non-voters who believe this toxic feed, that there’s no real difference between Democrats and Republicans — even claiming the Democratic ACA is intensely corrupt! — supposed to do? Continue not voting?

Despicable. I notice there’s of course no mention of our giant government reform bill in the house.

IMO, you should delete this hostile, lying article.