Congress Tries to Police Itself on Insider Trading
by Publius
WASHINGTON (AP) – Aware that most Americans would like to dump them all, members of Congress hope to regain some sense of trust by subjecting themselves to tougher penalties for insider trading and requiring they disclose stock transactions within 30 days.
A procedural vote Monday would allow the Senate later this week to pass a bill prohibiting members of Congress from using nonpublic information for their own personal benefit or “tipping” others to inside information that they could trade on.
Insider trading laws apply to all Americans, but CBS’ “60 Minutes” in November said members of Congress get a pass, citing investment transactions by party leaders and a committee chairman in businesses about to be affected by pending legislation.
The broadcast report raised questions about trades of House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio; the husband of Democratic leader and former Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California; and Rep. Spencer Bachus, R-Ala., chairman of the House Financial Services Committee.
All three denied using any insider information to make stock trades, but the broadcast set off a flurry of efforts in Washington to deal with the public perception.
A recent Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll of registered voters found 56 percent of them favor replacing the entire 535-member Congress. Other polls this year have given Congress an approval rating between 11 percent and 13 percent, while disapproval percentages have ranged from 79 percent to 86 percent.
House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., said he’s working on an expanded bill that would go beyond stock transactions and ban lawmakers from making land deals and other investments based on what they learned as members of Congress.
Read more at Associated Press.
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56 Comments
"Congress Tries to Police Itself on Insider Trading"
Yeah, I saw this in the Sunday Funnies.
Say, I've got an idea. Instead of means-testing Social Security, how about we means-test Congress. Anyone who's worth $250,000 or above should forfeit their congressional salary, and purchase their own health insurance.
You know, it's all about "leveling the playing field," "making things fair," "shared sacrifice," right Mr. president?
Oh, and this goes for you too.
Any of them who commited this crime should be removed from congress, jailed and be forced to pay the money made to our treasury to reduce the national debt.
Petulant child promises weak parent he will try to behave better, weak parent buys the BS, petulant child continues to misbehave in full view of the weak parent.
We need to break out the widest leather belt we have and whup them in the @ss until they behave properly. If that means replacing all of them then so be it.
Time to say enough, and show that we really DO mean it this time…
Well, since that approach seems to hold so much promise, why don't we all just police ourselves on everything? No more laws, no more police, no more government. The honor system – that's what we need.
IMO: Thats not a very practical option- anyone that holds a public office NEEDS to have any investment related holdings put into a "blind trust" and have that information made readily availiable to an "INDEPENDENT" oversight committee (one that neither holds office or has anything to gain) Letting these White Collar criminals police themselves is a joke, and a bad one at that! As an "American not Canadian" taxpayer ,I feel that a proposal of this nature just insults my intelligence and tells me the people behind it must believe their constituents are complete fools!
I'm sure you mean "makes" and not "worth", John!
Anyone in congress who's only worth $250K is guaranteed to get up to some shenanigans if he's not getting paid!
I am sure the honorable men and women we all elect can police themselves. LOL…PLEASE! They don't even follow the constitution.
Ill bet that fine example of "Congressional Excellence" Pelosi is all over this! (I just invented an oxymoron)
Remove the usurped power that congress has regarding the stock market and it won't matter what stocks congresscritters hold, buy or sell. When their "votes' cannot control the outcomes, they will have to bet on the stock market just like everyone else.
The problem is not a lack of penalties for congressional "insider" trading. The problem is that congress is "inside" on the "regulation" front in the first place.
If not a Foreign Power, if not a State (government), and if not a Indian Tribe, then the federal government has no Constitutional authority to regulate the commerce. Period. It is past time to admit that the Judiciary, via the Supreme Court, amended the Constitution unilaterally – which is itself Unconstitutional – by arbitrarily manufacturing, with word definition creep, a set of circumstances that gives government authorities it was never delegated.
Government was never afforded the ability to inject itself as a unwanted third party in every private two party contract. This would mean that there is no such thing as a private two party contract – which would make moot the enumerated power of the Judiciary to settle disputes regarding that very thing – a private two party contract!
Make no mistake, the Constitution has been set aside, and only an illusion of it remains in its place. We must Restore our Constitution and we do that by tossing out the people who refuse to restore it. And that means EVERY LAST ONE OF THEM!
Rules and laws never stopped bad people from doing bad things but, at least, this might make it harder for them to do it.
Just sayin'.
Just make everyone pinky swear, JB.
I'm sure this will be dismissed as a false arrest and that the police acted stupidly.
Anarchy is not the answer.
EVERYONE held EQUALLY to all laws, which can only be crafted and enforced OUTSIDE those Creator Endowed inalienable rights, is the answer.
Limited government is the answer, as opposed to no government -which is definitely not an answer but rather a problem not all that unlike the one we have now.
No, I actually meant "worth." The way I see it, if our "representatives" had to live off their own savings while SERVING in office, it would be almost like having term limits.
Eh, on second thought, that would mean that only the multi-millionaire pelosi-types would be able to stay in Congress.
Scrap that idea. Let's just throw them all out. : )
The next amendment to the US Constitution should be:
1. The Congress shall enact no law from which it exempts itself.
2. All previously enacted laws from which the Congress has exempted itself will become null and void at the end of the session of Congress during which this amendment is confirmed by the States.
"tells me the people behind it must believe their constituents are complete fools!"
Well, those constituents DID elect THEM into office.
Congress will probably file a multi-trillion dollar class action lawsuit against the American people for violating their fundamental right to extorting the tax payers of their own money.
SURE they follow the Constitution.
It's just that it's usually followed by laughter.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f0AADDovxvk
Oh don't worry chickens and quit your clucking,…….
the fox promised he would stop so,…….
next time he comes for a visit,…….
just let him in.
Gee Pubilus, I sure hope you didn't choke,…..
from all that smoke or cut yourself,…
running into one those mirrors.
from all that smoke
"A procedural vote Monday would allow the Senate later this week to pass a bill prohibiting members of Congress from using nonpublic information for their own personal benefit or “tipping” others to inside information that they could trade on."
So emails and phone calls to their brokers with tips will be reduced to "let's do lunch", at least the restaurant business will pick up.
But would that leave anyone to run the country? On second thought… it would probably pay off the national debt and balance the budget.
Spare the rod, spoil the child.
Kick every last one of them out and implement severe restrictions upon newly elected members…including term limits.
I will say this again. The way to fix this problem is for anyone serving in Government to be made to place all liquid assets in a double blind trust. The person is not to know the name of the asset manager and have no way of contacting them. Next, make violations of this a federal crime with a mandatory 20 year prison sentence and forfiture of ALL assets. No exceptions.
No investing in real estate either.
I'll bet the Founders would be kicking themselves for not making the Commerce clause a bit more clear from the way the Judiciary has bent it like a pretzel!
And my grandfather used to say that "locks are made for honest people." If you let the same critters who broke the rules, rewrite the rules, they'll just find a better way to hide their tracks.
Good start, Mark.
Wha? Our money? I was under the impression that it was their's and only on loan to us.
Btw… Nancy just ran through here screaming… TD'd you back up.
The only reason they're doing this is because we all know about this. Hadn't it not been for this website, they'd still continue to do this. So reguardless them trying to fix this problem, they still need to be kicked out of office.
And they in all likelyhood will continue to do so–ie; Pelosi and Reid!
Kinda defies logic does'nt it?
Yeah, I get the feeling GF was being just a little facetious.
LOL, Cruz! And we pick up the tab for lunch!
Wait. Why am I laughing?
“Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” John Adams
That includes the officials in all three branches of government. The "separation of church and state" is almost complete.
Even if we replaced all current house and senate members,
we'll be hard pressed to elect 535 new critters who will do the right
thing when no one is looking…
True that, Rita! Mr. Schweizer and Brietbart deserve much, if not all, of the credit. I'm surprised this article only mentions CBS.
But don't stop there. Demand the removal of all career congressional staffers, who would just teach the new critters all the old tricks.
Keystone cops art work again. Is there any faith in our elected officials, I think not.
Consider the alternative Nick, crying, real men don't cry.
The USA borrows over $46,000.00 dollars a second to keep the government going. This is not going to end well. JANUARY 2, 2012 OBAMANOMICS BY THE NUMBERS:
http://pjmedia.com/instapundit/134557/
Excellent idea! And let's let convicts determine their own sentences while we're at it, and we can fire all the judges.
"WASHINGTON (AP) – Aware that most Americans would like to dump them all, members of Congress hope to regain some sense of trust by subjecting themselves to tougher penalties for insider trading and requiring they disclose stock transactions within 30 days."
It will never happen.
Not as long as ANY of the current people remain in CONgress.
(Excluding the Tea Party Freshman class of the 2010 Election)
They ALL need to go.
From John Boehner, right on down.
Both sides of the crooked aisle.
IMO divestiture with a capital gains tax exemption available until they leave office, whereupon the former CON(gress)MAN would have the choice to reinvest the cash in like instruments, or pay the cap gain tax. Being unable to participate in the economy should demonstrate a public servants dedication to his constituency, if anything could. It should also heighten their awareness of the true principals of capitalism. Those not willing to give up the privilege of participating in capitalism in trade for the privilege of serving, need not run for public office.
This idea that we must allow CON(gress)MEN to cheat the system in order to "give" us their leadership is awfully ludicrous.
Heh, heh…
I don't think you ever had a belt used on your posterior, did'ja, 'cause anyone who has knows that the narrow belt stings the most…
.
"Congress policing itself" should be a self-evident oxymoron. Only the people can police the Congress, and the people's effectiveness at doing so has been plain to see for decades now.
Your idea is good. Additionally, the ban should be on ANY ELECTED OFFICIAL to NOT be able to do any trades, land deals, etc.. as well as family members or close associates. That would most likely occur in a self imposed term limited in office—–not a lifetime occupation. The pension fund program needs to change as well and those in elected office pay into social security. Same goes for any government pensioner–there are Roth IRA, etc. they can utilize just like the rest of us peons. Take away all the lease vehicles—let them provide their own, no paying for outside offices—-800 number or call center to take questions. Make them communicate by town halls. Yep, bet most would opt for only 1 session as an elected official.
Only the US CONgress would have an Ethics Comittee that advises them on how to skirt the laws that apply to the rest of US, and still maintain the appearance of propriety.
As to your comment of:
"the people's effectiveness at doing so has been plain to see for decades now."
One can only deduce that the People themselves have failed, because we keep electing the same silly sunzabltches that laugh in our faces and steal US blind.
Exactly so.
Agreed. The whole concept of centralized government is operating on an out-dated model…..It can all be done over the web and it wouldn't require so many "staffers" to draft the docs and get the coffee. Then, constituents could visit their congressmen/women at the local office in the Statehouse and be involved on a daily basis….think weekly townhall type meetings to help keep those elected accountable.
Don't we have RICO laws that let us take eveything from those who are racketeering. What else do you call this?
Just another example of no justice in our justice department!
"think weekly townhall type meetings to help keep those elected accountable."
Absolutely. And while we're at it, let's require online updates for every meeting between congressmen and lobbyists, special interests, and union leaders; what they're lobbying for, and the congressperson's position on the subject.
Now that would be "transparency I could believe in."
A Marxist congress will never police itself effectively. Look at the "ethics" panels who never really do anything.
I'd love to get a job on a congressional ethics panel. I could use the sleep.
Or a Pinkie Promise. No one breaks a Pinkie Promise.
How about truth serum or I know, waterboarding.
This is prima facie evidence of why these hustlers spend millions to get elected. It pays off!
Stellar ideas.
The problem is two-fold. Many decent people don't want to enter the filth that is politics, leaving the field for the power-craving elites. Those few decent folks who DO enter the filth end up swimming in feces with the rest of them. There are very few "clean" politicians, as far as I can tell.
What came first, the "dirty" or the "politician"?
Sure we have RICO laws. But it doesn't pertain to members of congress Silly.
I am one of the 56%. Replace them all. Start over.
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