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If you get caught up in details, you won't be able to understand.

Those numbers are just what they're spending on staff doing lobbying around the country, right? Most of those don't seem too crazy. Like the AARP is spending $3 million, but how many lobbyists is that actually employing? 10?

Those numbers are incredulous!

You should ask yourself: how can a for-profit company like AT&T justify spending $16million on something with $0 ROI?

For a company that made $180 billion in revenue, $16 million is only .009%. I'm not denying that lobbying is effective, but there's clearly a limit.

There are probably thousands of individual government regulations that each could cost AT&T more than $16 million per year. If lobbying was as powerful as some think, why don't they lobby even more?

0 ROI? Are you aware of the total monopoly they have in parts of the country?

Without lobbying, competition would have destroyed profitability of telecommunications.

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