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The Spectacle Blog
Yesterday’s “60 Minutes” on CBS included a report on members of Congress profiting from privileged information. The report was based on a upcoming book by Peter Schweizer, a research fellow at the conservative Hoover Institution, and includes instances of Rep. Spencer Bachus and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, among others, benefitting from investing in industries affected by legislation they were working on at the time. The segment is worth reading/watching.
As Schweizer suggests in the piece, members of Congress should be required to place their assets in blind trusts, as is mandatory for many officials in other branches of the government. While there’s nothing technically illegal about Congressmen using their insider knowledge about legislation to make a profit in the markets, it’s clearly unethical and problematic. I’m a little skeptical that there’s a signficant problem with Congressman passing bad laws for personal profit — there are already far more and greater perverse incentives in effect for insider trading to make an overwhelming difference. The idea, though, that a job as an elected official is a path to investment riches is troubling for other reasons.
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More Blog Posts by Joseph Lawler
http://spectator.org/blog/2011/11/14/blind-trusts-for-members-of-co
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Bob Grant| 11.14.11 @ 12:24PM
It's simply a license to steal every 2 or 6 years.
Congress men/women are playing with fire if they think they can continue to act unethically in this economic environment which seems more permanent as the months ensue.
This type of behavior brings out the inner-mob in me, and I'm sure others as well, that could spark otherwise law-abiding citizens to take to the streets.
This graft and corruption will do nothing but cause lawlessness.
TexasMom2012| 11.14.11 @ 2:08PM
Another case of Congress exempting itself from laws that citizens are forced to obey. Examples include Social Security, Medicare, Obamacare, I am sure the list is quite lengthy. Want to bet that most members of Congress avoid the indignity of being groped EVERY time they fly. Anyone else with a knee replacement gets groped EVERY single time they fly. And it is notable that those who want to ban private ownership of guns don't seem to include disarming their personal or private security guards. This type of behavior of Congress feeds into the massive distrust and disgust of Americans for their government. When Congress set itself up as more EQUAL than the rest of us, it is behaving in contradiction to our Constitution and founding documents.
Bill| 11.14.11 @ 3:05PM
Help defeat those liberal Democrats member of Congress and take back the Senate with a super majority.
David W| 11.14.11 @ 4:19PM
Some time back, due to my ability to save some money, I was able to buy stock in a financial company (I worked for a company in a different industry). Due to a job change I ended up working for a company that was in the financial industry (not a bank, but performed functions for banks and other financial institutions).
Even though I had little to no access to information that would help me make financial decisions, I was required to sell my stock. If Congress is not willing to at least put their stocks in a blind trust then why should I have to sell my stock? Is it the typical congressional "do as I say and not as I do" issue? No wonder we have such low regard for members of Congress.