If you are concerned about Citizens United, climate change, bank bailouts, income inequality, special interest subsidies, eroding education, government growth, etc., then you are likely concerned about lobbyists and the growing power of special interests. And if you are especially concerned youve likely read economists and policy wonks muddling through a number of intricate and not so convincing solutions. But heres something you have never heard the Founding Fathers knew how to control special interests and lobbyists completely. They knew how to craft legislation without a single hook from a corporate interest and how to prevent all bribery and intimidation of congressmen. And amazingly, their solution was in place from the day they wrote the Declaration of Independence until 200 years later, through both World Wars, and long after Kennedy was shot. In fact in 1969, the few lobbyists that worked in Washington were poor, sideline players scrambling for a living. They worked from their bedroom, wore cheap suits and pleaded with congressmen for time, begging our lawmakers for favorable legislation. And they almost always failed. As a result, K-Street was a Ghetto, and Gucci Gulch didnt exist.

In those years, if you donated 100 dollars to a congressional campaign, that would have put you in the realm of the 1-percenters. Back then, most US Congressmen spent under 20 thousand dollars for their entire campaign. Even adjusting for inflation, this means that school teachers and firemen could afford to run for national office. So what happened? Youre not going to like the answer. In fact, when the Founding Fathers, heroes at the time, enacted their solution they were called a slew of hateful names including evil geniuses. So I wont tell you their solution just yet. Ill just tell you the exact date (and specific piece of legislation) when things went wrong. But, even when all the timelines, graphs and data line up, you will still hate the idea. But hopefully you will also see why it works so well, and why their solution is the only way to keep lobbyists at bay. So, on October 26th, 1970 President Nixon signed a bill that youve never heard of, but you should know by heart. It is one of the two most important bills in history. It is called the Legislative Reorganization Act, and it did exactly that it reorganized our legislature, which means changing how Congress crafts, writes and decides our laws.

But, in the process it completely unraveled the methods set up by Madison, Jefferson, Washington, Franklin, Hamilton and others. So when you hear their solution you are going to have to decide, do you want to follow the path of the Founding Fathers or the path of President Nixon? It is that simple. This is an either/or situation. But be warned, the Founding Fathers methods are going to piss you off. And just like every newspaper, concerned citizen and congressmen of the 1970s, you will despise their idea. And because their idea is so reviling, Nixon received near universal support on the day of signing. But universal support should strike you as a problem. You see two groups in particular loved this legislation. Big business LOVED it, with capital letters. And the miserable lobbyists also LOVED the legislation. Thats a quote from a lobbyist who worked as a lobbyist at the time and now writes textbooks on lobbying. Further, he said that this specific bill made lobbying the force that it is today. In particular, Nixons bill dismantled the actions of James Madison, who, on the very first day of Congress set up the most powerful anti-lobbying committee in history, the Committee of the Whole. In fact all major legislation for 200 years passed

through this committee twice. That is because special interests are so insidious that they sometimes need a double dose of the Founding Fathers medicine. So what is their solution? Well it goes against almost every single penny being spent fixing Congress today. If you are working for OpenGov.org, Transparency International or the Sunlight Foundation, you are going to hate this, because the Founding Fathers were huge advocates of secrecy. In fact they saw the benefits of both transparency and secrecy. Like you, they felt that everyone on earth should see the final legislation before the final and open vote, no committees involved. But, they felt that the legislative process, the drafting of the laws, should be entirely secret. All markup sessions should be private. And all votes un-recorded. They felt so strongly about this secrecy that when they wrote the Constitution, they sealed off the windows and hired armed guards to stand outside the doors of Independence Hall. Further, they deemed any congressmen who divulged even one word of the proceedings to be an enemy of American liberty. This is because they understood if any word got out, the special

interests would find traction. And if anyone could find out how individual congressmen voted on specific amendments, then those congressmen could be bribed or intimidated. This wasnt new stuff. This has endless precedent in history. Madison adopted the idea of the Committee of the Whole from England as protection for legislators from the king. And the idea of secrecy in the legislative process goes back to Jeremy Bentham, Pliny the Younger and Aristotle. In fact there isnt a single shred of data or historical precedent to support the bill that Nixon signed not before he signed it and not afterward. There is just our built-in aversion to secrecy. Sure we love to know everything. Even though none of us track even one percent of our congressmans votes, we love to know that Congress is open and available for us to watch them. But there is one group that watches every vote, and that group has the resources and motivation to sit in on every session, and to contribute to the crafting of legislation with the openness and transparency that Nixon gave them. That group is the lobbyists. They need transparency like we need oxygen. And with a little transparency, they have grown

from nothing in 1969, to one of the biggest and most lucrative industries in the world. And they can be killed in a snap. Tomorrow. For zero cost. By reintroducing secrecy to the legislative process, campaign finance can be pushed back to pre-Watergate levels, income inequality can be fixed, partisanship can be fixed, and the lobbyists will go back to working from their bedrooms. All we have to do is respect the data and history. All we have to do is respect the wishes of the Founding Fathers using the same methods they used to draft the Bill of Rights. They were willing to be called names for clean legislation. They were willing to shut out their friends, shut out their personal ambitions, and shut out the special interests. So the choice is yours President Nixon, lobbyists and absolute transparency or the Founding Fathers, clean legislation and a hefty dose of secrecy. You cant have it both ways.