[Aunche]

First of all $3.5 billion is not a lot of money when you consider that it represents all industry. We spend significantly more money on almonds [1]. More importantly, lobbying is literally just talking to politicians, and the vast majority of this money is just spent on salaries and expenses for professionals who do so.

The reason it seems like congress is so beholden to corporate lobbyists is because corporations are the only ones who take lobbying seriously these days. Grassroots lobbying being taken seriously is what lead to the passage of the Civil Rights and Clean Air acts. Even today, there are examples of grassroots lobbying that prevails over corporate interests. A handful of nimby can perpetually stall billions of dollars of real estate development, and there is no way billionaires like Peter Thiel are happy that abortion bans have cost the Republican Party so much political capital.

[1] https://slatestarcodex.com/2019/09/18/too-much-dark-money-in...