Paige: I live in London prozac false positive amphetamine Congressmen are increasingly second-rate individuals, but that doesn't mean they're dumb: they know how to cash in. In 1974, 3 percent of retiring members of Congress became lobbyists. Today, it's 50 percent for senators and 42 percent for their colleagues in the House. And the pace is accelerating: over the last 12 years, corporate America — and much of that, Wall Street — has tripled its spending on lobbying.