In the podcast I did with Dylan Ratigan last week, I mentioned we needed a Constitutional amendment mandating public funding of all federal elections. It seems to be the only way imaginable to get all of the dirty money and corporate lobbying efforts out of each and every attempt to close tax loopholes, reduce overall spending, and fix the tax code.

As if on cue, Tim Iacono points to this outrageous chart (via Time Magazine) showing how much dirty lobbying money has poured into DC over the past decade:

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Source: Time magazine.

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If you want to understand why the problems in DC are intractable, start with that graph above.

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Previously:

Government for Sale: 2009 Lobbying $3.49 Billion (July 14th, 2010)