Come campaign season, you’ll hear politicians on both sides insist that they want to go to change Washington – or even “Drain the Swamp.” For the sake of our families and small businesses, we need to reverse the course of destruction Joe Biden and Congressional Democrats have created, but we can’t do it without taking on Members of Congress and their corrupt stock trades.
Democrats – and even some Republicans – shy away from talking about this. Perhaps that’s because a list includes dozens of Members from both parties of violating the laws we have on the books specifically to prevent insider trading by our elected representatives.
If we’re serious about draining the D.C. Swamp, one of the first things a new Congress facing the Biden administration needs to do is to ban Members of Congress and their spouses from trading stocks.
Are all violations malicious? Of course not, but as stewards of the public’s trust, our elected officials should go out of their way to avoid even the appearance of impropriety—and this shouldn’t be hard. It’s a privilege to serve constituents and protect their interests.
The bottom line is that there are far too many opportunities for elected officials to learn about sensitive, nonpublic matters that could be used to enhance a stock portfolio: information shared among colleagues away from news cameras, closed door committee hearings, classified intelligence briefings.
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi is one of the biggest offenders. Weeks before a crucial vote on the industry, her husband Paul sunk millions into a computer chip company that would have benefited handsomely from the eventual bill. Only once his trades became public was he forced to sell them at a loss, but don’t worry: Paul Pelosi has also made millions off of Alphabet and Microsoft stocks conveniently timed with news events that were material to changes in the stock price. Are we really supposed to believe this is a coincidence?
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We shouldn’t have to wonder. There’s a reason why trust in our public institutions is at an all-time low; our public officials are more interested in enriching themselves than they are about solving the real-world problems Americans are facing affording basics like gas and food or fighting crime in their communities. Public service is a privilege – and not the right too many of these D.C. politicians have come to expect it to be.
Unfortunately, for the public – and to the great benefit of the offending lawmakers – the House Ethics Committee, which is charged with policing these violations likely will not meet to resolve these issues until after Election Day. That means for politicians who have flagrantly abused the system, they essentially have a “Get Out of Jail Free” card to bring home with them to the campaign trail. This doesn’t surprise me; from my time in the Trump administration, I have seen firsthand the lengths to which bureaucrats will go to cling to power and thwart new ideas.
It does mean, however, that a new Congress has a unique opportunity to start cleaning house. Congress should not only thoroughly investigate and penalize the bad actors, but it should also be focused from Day 1 about prohibiting these corrupt practices from the start. Rebuilding trust with the American people will not be an easy task, but we can start with a bold message that Congress is out of the self-serving, corrupt stock trading business that rewards insiders at the public’s expense.
Matt Mowers served as Senior White House Advisor in the U.S. Department of State in the Trump Administration and was the 2020 Republican Nominee in New Hampshire’s 1st Congressional District
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