People think Congress is increasing its staff. So Congress might as well actually do it.

Over the past several months, I've repeatedly made the case that there's a simple solution that would dramatically reduce the unwelcome influence the growing numbers of corporate lobbyists have in Washington: Beef up congressional staff so that Congress can think for itself, rather than having to rely on lobbyists for policy expertise.

Instead of relying on (too few) mid-20-somethings who are expected to somehow be experts on a dozen complicated issues as of yesterday, congressional offices should start hiring enough real policy professionals who won't need to rely so much on lobbyists to explain policy basics for them. Note: The entire House and Senate combined spend less on staff ($2 billion a year) than corporations spend on lobbying ($2.6 billion a year).