Lawson links to The Wall Street Journal, which details how the Big Three of Detroit have continued budgeting for federal lobbying expenditures while accepting federal bailout funds. As one example, General Motors (GM) spent $3.3 million on lobbying in the final quarter of 2008, a time when they also received over $13 billion in low-interest loans from the federal government in a bailout. GM spent $13.1 million total on lobbying Congress in 2008. That was less than they had spent in 2007 on federal lobbying, $14.3 million. GM spent a bit less on lobbying than Ford and Chrysler combined for the year.

The WSJ writes:

“‘Lobbying is the transparent and effective way that GM has its voice heard on critical policy issues…that companies should not be required to forfeit if they receive federal funding,’ said GM spokesman Greg A. Martin, who added that no funds lent from the Treasury would be used for lobbying.”

Lawson writes:

“Last year’s climactic payouts resulted from years of lobbying investment — considering the balance of funds received over the past several decades, annualized return is likely much less. However, in a year when traditional investments available to most Americans (including their shareholders) were severely damaged, lobbying as an investment strategy demonstrates excellent uncorrelated performance from the overall market.

Perhaps institutions who have diligently positioned themselves as ‘too big to fail’ could open up new hedge funds that would let sophisticated Americans invest in lobbying efforts for a direct claim on the funds received? Forget about even using those funds to run a business, let’s just set up alternative investments to see who can turn their lobbying prowess into cash as adroitly as possible. Come to think of it, perhaps that’s a better way to describe bondholders in these storied institutions.”