[rayiner]

The bribery laws we have on the books do apply to lobbyists; it's just that what lobbyists do isn't bribery. Because corporations are legally prohibited from donating to candidates, the exchange of money is not part of lobbying. When you hear "Google spent $X million lobbying" that means they paid lobbyists $X million to make presentations and submit whitepapers and draft legislation to the staff of legislators. (How do you spend millions of dollars on a PowerPoint presentation? The same way you can spend millions of dollars on a legal filing.)