Empty House of Representatives // credit: westorlandonews
If you’re a red or blue duopolist—life is good. About half the time your party is in power, and the other half you get to feed off capitalist crumbs. Kurt Vonnegut told the story of the concentration camp prisoners who divided up the day's meager loaf. All the captives were emaciated except the person who divvied up the bread—the crumb-winner.
Snopes.com has a story out about Sen. Feinstein’s husband landing a sweet deal to dispose of some post office properties. Supreme Court Justice Thomas’ wife is a lobbyist. House Majority leader Mitch McConnell’s wife sits on many corporate boards and has significant business dealings with China.
If you would like your eyes opened to other hair raising behavior you should read Peter Schweizer’s Throw Them All Out. Here is what Schweizer recently said in a Religion & Liberty interview about the behavior of elected government officials and the concept of term limits,
"This idea has been pushed that we need to have this highly specialized, very smart leadership who’s been there for a long time, who understands the issues to help us run the country, so to speak, and run the economy. To which my response is, look at the results with the economy and with the national debt. I think if anything the experience argues for injecting more citizen legislators who are going to make the tough choices rather than continuing to rely on the self perpetuating elite."
While I take exception to the national debt being a problem—today, I totally agree with the "self-perpetuating elite," referred to in some cultures as "monarchs."
The Stock Act has been gutted twice, once to allow family insider trading, which I have come to call the Spousal Insider Trading Empowerment Act. And again on a sleepy Friday afternoon before a holiday weekend to remove pertinent financial disclosure.
In a poll of independents, conservatives, and liberals where their opinions are given equal weight, the Stock Act in its original form garnered a 93% positive tripartisan rating. Further evidence that ending Stock Act loopholes has broad support, regardless of political affiliation.
Another poll of democrats, republicans and independents run by the Public Campaign Action Fund, has 81% in favor of closing the revolving door similarly. But allowing spouses to benefit while their partner is serving in government isn’t even a revolving door it’s a capitalist commune or the spousal side-door.
Should spouses be exempt from insider trading regulations?