Interview with Barack Obama - Rolling Stone magazine

Saturday July 19 / 2008

- If you are president, what do you think will make the traditional Washington establishment most nervous about how you approach policy and government?

The relationship between lobbyists and legislation and the revolving door that's been created between people in government and K Street is not something you can eliminate, but it's something you can curb. People are going to be nervous about the fact that I'm interested in curbing it. Lobbyists have a function to play; they have a representing interest as part of our democracy. But the degree to which, during the Republican Congress, you literally had oil companies writing energy legislation or drug companies writing drug legislation, without regard for the public interest — that's got to change. And that will make some people uncomfortable, partly because it's very lucrative, and it's grown massively over the last decade. I don't think people understand...

- The way legislation has been outsourced to private interests?

Yeah. I don't think people understand how much the lobbying industry has grown, and how much money is involved in it. A lot of people are getting paid handsomely.

- Would you say it's overtaken the elected representatives themselves, in terms of their power to write legislation?

I don't think it's overtaken the legislature, but I think that it has become an unhealthy symbiotic relationship.

https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/features/a-conversation-with-barack-obama-20080710

I'm Colombian and i want more than "a curb". Democracy in U.S., maybe?