Lobbyists spent $3.47 billion in Washington in 2009, breaking last year’s record of $3.3 billion. Unsurprisingly, the health-care and finance industries were at the top of the dance card (cf. Liberal Fascism, Chapter 8: “Liberal Fascist Economics”).

Over at On the News, we’ve already noted that, even as the private sector continues to face record unemployment, it has been the Roaring Aughts for government employees — who have seen sizeable salary increases — and government contractors — who had an annus mirabilis thanks to stimulus dollars. So it makes sense that lobbying, too, appears to be “recession proof.”

UPDATE: In yet another example of troubled minds thinking alike, Jim Geraghty has more on the lobbyist numbers over at Campaign Spot.