Recession saps budget critics' lobbying power

WASHINGTON -- Some of the special-interest groups opposed to tax increases or spending cuts in President Obama's proposed 2010 budget plan are facing a more immediate pocketbook problem: The recession has sapped their ability to fight back.

Farmers, charities and marketers of student loans are among the threatened groups guarding their money this year as they mull how to counter Obama's proposals. Even the powerful Business Roundtable, which spent $13.3 million to lobby on federal issues in 2008, is hoping to save on advertising costs.

"We're going to be very careful with our resources," says John Castellani, president of the association of corporate CEOs. The recession, he says, is affecting "anyone's ability to advertise."

Not all interest groups are retrenching. The American Petroleum Institute went on the attack last week with a radio ad criticizing what it said would be "massive new taxes and fees on America's oil and natural gas industry" costing "thousands of American jobs." Insurers and drugmakers who face possible reductions in health care spending also are prepared to run ads.

Those industries, along with electric utilities, spent more on lobbying in 2008 than anyone else, according to the non-partisan Center for Responsive Politics. The pharmaceutical and health products industry led the way with $231 million.

"We don't see any need right now for any sort of advertising campaigns," says Billy Tauzin, president of Pharmaceutical Research & Manufacturers of America.

The drug industry's trade group spent more than $20 million on lobbying last year.

Health care industry: Too soon to tell

Health insurers, who helped kill the overhaul effort in 1994 with its "Harry and Louise" ad campaign, are holding their fire this time. "It's too early to tell" if ads will be aired, says Robert Zirkelbach, spokesman for America's Health Insurance Plans.

Some activists expect big money to flow eventually, especially on health care, where Obama is proposing the first full-scale overhaul since 1993. Rick Scott, a former industry executive who says he has invested $5 million of his own money in an ad campaign aimed at preserving choice and competition in the system, notes health care represents one-seventh of the economy.