The First Law of Thermodynamics states:
Energy can neither be created nor destroyed. It can only change forms. In any process, the total energy of the universe remains the same.
Timothy Carney at the Washington Examiner has found its corollary in politics, reporting today that General Motors, the formerly private company now owned by the federal government, will use bailout money provided by the federal government to lobby … the federal government:
General Motors will continue its multimillion-dollar lobbying operation in Washington, even after the federal government takes ownership of it. The automaker may even maintain its high-dollar lobbying contracts with some of the wealthiest and most influential K Street firms.
“We believe we have an obligation to remain engaged at the federal and state levels,” General Motors stated in an e-mail after President Barack Obama announced his plan for the federal takeover of the carmaker, “and to have our voice heard in the policymaking process.”
As a result, some of the jobs that the White House will save with this unprecedented nationalization could be on K Street in downtown D.C., rather than in Detroit.
In other words, part of the taxpayer money (and the dosh borrowed from the Chinese…) is being laundered through “Government Motors” to pay for lobbyists who will buy dinners for and contribute to the campaigns of the members who voted to create the bailout program in the first place. It’s a closed system, the total energy (money) of which remains the same. The money just changes forms, that’s all.
Head spinning yet?
As Ed points out at Hot Air, there’s nothing wrong with lobbying per se; it’s protected under the 1st amendment right to petition Congress. However, this is more than a bit unseemly: for a company whose only hope of survival was to be taken over by the government at taxpayer expense to then use that same money to lobby its new owners for more money is more than ridiculous. It would have been better to have let GM just go broke and then divvy the bailout money among the workers.
But such is the way of things in Obama’s Corporatist States of America. 
(Cross-posted at Public Secrets)
