The problem is that congresspeople are not breaking current laws, but what they're doing is unethical.
Being briefed on the economic and national security implications of an upcoming pandemic, then selling your stocks is not illegal but it is UNETHICAL.
Telling your husband that you're going to bring to vote a bill that will bolster the US semiconductor industry, then having him buy a bunch of semiconductor stocks is not illegal but it is UNETHICAL.
We would need a new law to make these things illegal.
The real truth is that we need full scale dossiers furnished to a qualification committee to determine fitness for office to begin with. To be eligible for election, one should have to pass a DOJ and FBI background check, have to furnish fingerprints, have to have no current or past misdemeanors or felonies (of course felonies already disqualify), and they should have to provide past job references (as prospective employees do most places) as well as personal references (as one needs to do for loans), a credit check (which now happens for a lot of jobs), and have to completely divest themselves of any assets other than their government salary.
This will get us loyal government workers who make honest laws because the edgiest of the edgy....would be weeded out. We'd have a friendly bicameral legislature full of people who just want to work for their country.
And pursuant to the line I signed with the 2010 Census, because any names or info about such names would be considered Personally Identifying Information (PII), anyone who tried to write a book to monetize their time in Washington for the same period of five years as governed by the Department of Commerce would be potentially punished with a 10 year prison sentence and a $500,000 fine.
CORRECT! Attaching Pelosi's name to it is just dirty politics. How many Republican officials were in trouble with insider trading in the last few years? MANY.
If Pelosi broke the law, then someone should file charges against her. Fine by me.
The problem is that congresspeople are not breaking current laws, but what they're doing is unethical.
Being briefed on the economic and national security implications of an upcoming pandemic, then selling your stocks is not illegal but it is UNETHICAL.
Telling your husband that you're going to bring to vote a bill that will bolster the US semiconductor industry, then having him buy a bunch of semiconductor stocks is not illegal but it is UNETHICAL.
We would need a new law to make these things illegal.
So, if what you say is true (I'm no expert on the law here), then add that kind of thing to the current law regarding insider trading. I don't think a special law prohibiting lawmakers from owning individual stocks is the way to go.
Jeez, no need to single out Hawley ... every single one of them is trading on inside information.
No, they're not. The ones with blind trusts are not doing it. Such a law should be passed, and so should campaign financing be reformed and the moneyed interests removed from the process. But what a joke to call it the PELOSI act when Republicans do it all the time, and don't withdraw support from those caught insider trading. Many in Congress in general do it. The New York Times reported 97 members of Congress doing this in 2022.
97 Members of Congress Reported Trades in Companies ... › U.S. › Politics 38 Sep 13, 2022 — At least 97 current members of Congress bought or sold stock, bonds or other financial assets that intersected with their congressional work
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