The county in which I live (King County, WA) recently released it proposed budget. It’s draconian. Not surprisingly, the worst of the cuts target those with the least resources and the least political power. Particularly targeted are women in vulnerable situations and the elderly. Consider these numbers:

County funding for sexual assault services:

Down 83% (from $557,000 to $96,000)

County funding for domestic violence prevention

Down 82% (from $835,000 to $150,000)

Similar cuts are proposed for senior day health programs, food banks and meals programs, transitional housing programs, and foreclosure prevention programs. The effects of these cuts will be devastating and the level of desperation among county residents is guaranteed to rise. But customers are not the only ones certain to suffer. People providing these services will lose jobs or employment hours, further aggravating the unemployment and lack of aggregate demand that is keeping the real economy from rebounding.

No doubt, similar cuts are happening or forthcoming in counties and states all over the country. So what can be done?

An October 21 article in the New York Times reported that America's Health Insurance Plans reported spending $2.4 million on lobbying during July, August and September. As legislation for reforming Wall Street practices works its way through congress similar lobbying is certain to come from the financial industry. And therein lies an opportunity.

Congress should enact a simple law requiring that for every dollar spent on lobbying, an industry be required to donate a matching dollar toward America’s neglected and threatened emergency support sectors. The funds raised could be pooled in a fund administered by a responsible nonprofit and distributed to the neediest food banks, shelters, community clinics, etc.

According to the Governmental Ethics Commission, lobbyists spent $1,121,771.99 between January and August of 2009. The underlying reason industries pay so much to lobby is that the profits gained from regulatory changes obtained through lobbying far exceed the cost of lobbying. This is largely how Wall Street made such absurd profits this past decade (it's not because they are good at their jobs.)  Everyone knows that lobbying distorts public policy away from the real needs of people and will never be sufficiently reformed. But, at least it could be harnessed and modified to actually do some good for the most needy and desperate people in the country, who have almost no one lobbying on their behalf.