Take it a step further: if there weren't any government intervention, then they wouldn't have to pay any lobbyists. The companies wouldn't even need any laws enacted. They would - as the phrase implies - do whatever they wanted. The lobbying is the process by which they are able to enact their will, despite, in theory, being a regulatory mechanism.

If anything it's member's only laissez-faire, where only those with enough money to buy lobbying influence are given carte blanche.

> "if there weren't any government intervention, then they wouldn't have to pay any lobbyists."

That thought experiment doesn't help though, since at the level of abstractions we are talking on, just having courts to enforce normal contract law can be construed as "intervention" of a kind. Wolves of various kinds typically decry shepherds for not allowing them the liberty to eat of the flock. The whole point of this civilization thing is to pull us a bit above/out of the state of nature. So "no government intervention" isn't a viable setting for a civilization.

I guess I didn't do a good job of expression my thought. I completely agree on your point, and I wasn't try to endorse or espouse a lack of government.

I suppose I could have stated it better by saying that the regulation that's in place is merely a puppet for the lobbyist, providing the facade of regulation, when it's 'laissez-faire' since those paying the lobbyists are allowed to do what they wish.