Washington has wrongly made taxpayers foot the bill for thousands of egregious projects - treadmills for shrimp, Jell-O-wrestling in Antarctica, a “Bridge to Nowhere” - but funding lobbyists to advocate for higher taxes, costly regulations and more egregious projects on the taxpayer’s dime is out-of-control government spending at its worst.

In his 2013 budget proposal, President Obama erased three critical anti-lobbying provisions that protect taxpayers from funding their own tax increases. Without this language, the federal government can more easily use our tax dollars to pay local governments and third-party groups to hire lobbyists, advocate publicly for a bill that will increase taxes, impose more government oversight and stifle individual freedoms, using such tools as television and radio advertising, pamphlets, and presentations.

Read more: The Washington Times