Paying Court to Washington

Like Microsoft and Google before it, Apple tried to stay clear of Washington but is now "too big not to nail," writes David Boaz in the New York Daily News:

According to Politico, the daily newspaper of lobbyists and political consultants, industry giant Apple spent a mere $500,000 in Washington in the first quarter of 2012, compared to more than $7 million Google and Microsoft spent on lobbying and related activities from January through March of this year.

Then Politico lowers the boom: “The company’s attitude toward D.C. — described by critics as ‘don’t bother us’ — has left it without many inside-the-Beltway friends.”

“Don’t bother us”? I say, amen. But Washington says, no way. The attitude on the Potomac is: “Nice little company ya got there, shame if anything happened to it.”

On Cato's blog, Boaz says he was prompted by this Politico article.

The Politico article has little to say about what information Apple could have conveyed to legislators and regulators had it hired lobbyists to explain things. Rather, it focuses on attitudes and spending. The question seems to be: Is Apple paying enough court to the high and mighty?

This is the fundamental alternative to a society of rights: a society of power.

Related reading: The Godsenator .

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