Amazon.com, Paypal, MasterCard and Visa have ceased to do business with Wikileaks--the controversial organization that's published thousands of classified U.S. government documents. All four have spent millions of dollars lobbying the federal government on a variety of issues ranging from keeping Internet sales exempt from taxation to the regulation of credit card issuers under the Dodd Frank financial reform bill.

 

Lobbyists for Amazon.com, for example, have reported spending more than $20 million to influence the government since 1999, according to data compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics. In the company's most recent lobbying disclosure ...