Consumer Watchdog Says Google’s Lobbying Expenses Show Firm Has Adopted ‘Cash and Carry’ Approach to Politics; Spending Soars 87 Percent

Mon, Jan 23, 2012 at 12:32 pm

    Consumer Watchdog Says Google’s Lobbying Expenses Show Firm Has Adopted ‘Cash and Carry’ Approach to Politics; Spending Soars 87 Percent

    WASHINGTON, DC – Internet giant Google spent nearly $10 million lobbying federal policymakers in 2012, showing that the company has abandoned its idealistic “Don’t Be Evil” roots and has bought into Washington’s corrupt “cash and carry” political system, Consumer Watchdog said today.

    Lobbying reports filed with the Senate Office of Public Records first available online over the weekend show Google spent $9.7 million in 2011, an 87 percent increase from $5.2 in 2010.

    Facebook, relatively new to the Washington lobbying scene, now appears headed down the same morally bankrupt path as Google, Consumer Watchdog said. The social network spent more than three times as much in 2011 as it did in 2010 in its lobbying effort. Senate records show it spent $1.4 million in 2011 compared to $351,390 in 2010.

    Check the Senate lobbying database here: http://soprweb.senate.gov/index.cfm?event=selectfields

    “Obviously Google executives have no qualms about spending lots of money to get their way,” said John M. Simpson, director of Consumer Watchdog’s Privacy Project. “They used to claim their efforts were ‘educational,’ but this is just spending however much it takes to buy whatever they want.”

    Google was most lavish in the fourth quarter when it spent $3.8 million, a 181 percent increase from $1.2 million in the fourth quarter of 2010.

    Microsoft, a long time tech company player in the Washington money game, spent $7.3 million on federal lobbying in 2011, up from $6.9 million in 2010.

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