House Republicans Call on Lobbyists and Other Monied Interests to Craft GOP Agenda

This post first appeared on Daily Kos.

It was barely a month ago that House Republicans announced the launch of a new website, America Speaking Out, that was designed to “craft a new agenda” based on input from real Americans.

Said a spokesman:

“There’s going to be a months-long period of engaging with the American people, asking for their ideas and [gauging] what their priorities are, and that’s going to take time,” Buck said. “Most people come up with an agenda in a back room in Washington, put it forward and say here’s what it is, take it.”

And today House Republicans are opting to be most people:

House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) and Rep. Peter Roskam (R-Ill.) have invited senior Republican lobbyists and top officials from several large trade groups to the Capitol next week to provide their suggestions for a new GOP agenda.

The meeting is part of the House leaders’ initiative called America Speaking Out, which is intended to draw broad input to create a new policy agenda for the party to launch in the fall.

An e-mail invitation sent to more than 20 trade representatives and obtained by Roll Call summoned guests to Boehner’s second-floor office on July 16 “to discuss House Republican efforts to produce a new policy agenda with a small group of trade association leaders.”

So, to craft the new GOP agenda, regular folks got to drop a comment on a website and big money gets a behind-closed-door meeting. Guess which ones are the House Republican’s idea of “real” Americans?