12/21/21
Congress Members and The Swamp
The New York Times reported recently that “politicians and their immediate families bought $267 million and sold $364 million worth of assets this year,” pointing out that “Democrats are really into tech stocks, which accounted for some $35 million” and that “Republicans are more about energy, buying $32 million worth of stock in companies in the sector during the year.”
Predictably, in the partisan divide over investments, West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin aligns with the Republicans more than the Democrats (his strong preference
is for coal).
There are so many stock trades that many congressional traders lose track and fail to meet their reporting obligations.
The hypocrisy of Congress is astonishing when you look at the fact that every other federal employee is subject to a criminal statute that prohibits financial conflicts of interest with official duties. It is a crime for a federal officer to participate in a particular government matter, including supporting or opposing a bill in Congress, that has a direct and predictable effect on the
federal officer’s financial interest.
"Then there is the insider trading problem. Members of Congress know a lot of information the rest of us don’t know, and some of this information can be useful for stock trading. Trading on the basis of nonpublic information misappropriated from Congress or any other employer, however, is a crime. Investment bankers and corporate officers routinely go to jail for insider trading, and the Securities and Exchange Commission, when it suspects insider trading, can commence an investigation and subpoena corporate emails, texts and other records showing what traders knew and when they knew it. It's not so easy in the case of Congress because the
speech and debate clause of the Constitution is interpreted to severely limit the ability of federal investigators to obtain records and find out who said what to whom in congressional offices and on the floor."
Very few are not participating in getting rich while they are in office...that's been part of the game. For some here to act as if they are not aware of this is typical. Almost all of those politicians are doing the same thing no matter the office they hold in DC. The prosecution of the criminals is very selective and largely depends on which party is in charge. Yet at the end of the day even those people have puppet masters, the folks who are really pulling the strings, those the masses don't see nor know their names. So in a very real sense, this whole thread only makes good fodder for those routing for their team. But, as far as a solution to "draining the swamp"...that's like trying to sue satan and holding court in hell....a complete waste of the taxpayers time and money (those of us who have to legitimately work for a living).
