Rather than jumping into the scrum, let me, as they say on Jeopardy!, put it in the form of a question. Should influence peddling be a viable business plan for an elected official and his or her family? How about insider trading?
Don’t bother to argue that neither exists. Or is limited to handful of individuals. Both are widespread and commonplace.
My own view is that we need to be much, much tougher on all forms of political corruption and the appearance of political corruption. Living in Chicago can convince you of that.
It should be easy to ban insider trading by pols. Banning influence peddling will be more difficult. Any thoughts on that would be appreciated.
Human beings are rather slippery creatures, let’s review:
G.W. Bush traded influence with the University of Texas to parlay a small, loaned portion of the Texas Rangers baseball team into a fortune.
Th Clinton’s sold influence to raise money for the Clinton Foundation, whose funds were under their control, to spend as they pleased.
B.H.Obama collected money from donors who purchased and donated truckloads of his ghost written autobiography.
D.J.Trump ran for president, soliciting donations which some people said were misappropriated.
All of these and more collect bloated fees for boring speeches about subjects they know little but are actually paid for their contacts and influence.
Probably none of this is illegal, and were it, a detour would be found.
IMO, external earnings of any sort by officeholders should be required to be reported and published. Will it stand public scrutiny and the light of day?
I would advocate for a lot more reporting being required as a start. The recent SCOTUS findings were awful. A life time appointment as a judge where you should maintain the appearance of impartiality. The judges accept thousands of dollars and gifts and their wives just happen to land jobs that pay very well, with political overtones. All income, gifts, trips, etc should be reported. We should at least know whose payroll these politicians are on.
We should try to broaden this. Banning insider trading is an obvious start but not sure I have any great ideas on that. Maybe more public reporting on the income of senators and congressmen. At present, IIRC, they report only a range of income and dont have to report where it all comes from. Providing income tax forms should be universal for the public to see.
Families are difficult. Did Jared seal a $2 billion deals with the Saudis because he is a great real estate guy or because he made deals while in his official govt position or to influence his FIL? Family need to work just like everyone else and while it wont be easy to hide cash payments its going to be easy to claim that you hired one of those family or friends because you thought they merited the job. I think that I would favor pretty strict limits on spouses and just more reporting/makimg public monies/jobs by other family. (The weakness in this I know is that things are so tribal that people will still support someone on their own team even if they are taking money or accepting jobs that are questionable.)
Steve
Openness would help with publicly posted on the Courthouse square state and federal tax returns, then you need a press willing to dissect and report on those returns. Influence peddling again open appointment books and calendars to see who is meeting with whom. And while I’m wishing how about a banana split with rocky road as one of the scoops.
Like locks, all these measures do is keep honest people honest.
It’s bizarre that we have a 2nd President in a row, but from a different party that is in a scandal involving an Eastern Slavic country.
Maybe the difference isn’t that great between parties.
Eastern Europe is where the active money is these days.
Good observation CO. I think there is opportunity where there is turmoil and corruption. Manafort made his living for years managing campaigns there. The list of people who have financial interests/get paid for something in that part of the world is surprisingly long IMO.
Steve