Well, Hell, There Has To Be Some Reward For Marrying a Congressvarmit
So, here’s the deal. Remember how congress got all up on their high horse and enacted laws that said members of congress couldn’t benefit from insider trading information they may get while serving the damn country?
Not so fast, oh yee of faith.
The STOCK Act requires that any trades of $1,000 or more made on or after July 3 have to be reported to the House and Senate within 45 days. But the House and Senate have two completely different interpretations of that rule.
In the Senate, the Ethics Committee released one page of guidelines last month ruling that members and their spouses and dependent children all have to file reports after they make stock or securities trades. But the House Ethics Committee disagreed.
Its 14-page memo notifies House members and aides covered by the law that their spouses and children aren’t covered. The Office of Government Ethics, which oversees all federal executive branch employees, sided with the House, informing its employees that their spouses and children don’t need to file these periodic reports.
So, if you’re in Congress and your underage child makes a killing on the stock market because you talk in your sleep, or at the dinner table, or in the family swimming pool or yacht, that’s just one of the few perks of having a member of congress as your parent.
Kinda puts a whole new spin on that E-Trade talking baby commercial, huh? Slogan? “When my congressman dad talks, only the family gets to listen.”
Thanks to Cheryl for the heads up.
I’m shocked! (Can you hear the drip, drip, drip of sarcasm?)
1Glad you wrote about Canter’s little loophole. Can you imagine if a Democrat had pulled the same thing? OMG the screech from the rethuglicans would be heard around the world! I am sure Canter is damn glad it came out this past week and it’s been overshadowed by the terrible tragedy in Colorado…. I know that sounds bad but I absolutely believe the man is thanking his lucky stars there is something else in the news getting people’s attention! This is why we Liberals absolutely have to talk about his, contact our elected reps and demand an invesitgation! The rethuglicans are playing dirty politics and I am pretty sure ole Canter was not the only rethug who knew about this loophole.
2I’m gonna store this someplace as a standard response to new revelations of this sort..
“This is the sort of elected official crap that infuriates me. … Clearly they subscribe to some sort of Imperial view of themselves. What little $hit$ they are.”
One question remains. When will some ambitious assistant United States Attorney, looking to make reputation for hisownself, figure out how to seek a RICO indictment against these members of the House? Clearly the House of Representatives is actively engaged in organized (more or less) crime.
3Bill Flores probably wrote the damn thing!
4I don’t think this legislation went far enough. Staff and staff families should have been included. Good ol Cantor was shorting dollars due that awful raise the debt ceiling fiasco they created. Wonder who else was?
5I suppose it would be quite rude of me to speculate that this has something to do with the Senate having a D majority and the House being run by a bunch of GOP trolls.
6House Ethics Committee is such an oxymoron. I always laugh when I see it, especially these days. And I agree with crone – I feel that staff, staff families, and congresscritters families should all have been included.
7To be fair, the Ethics (gag) committee is 50% each.
The company I worked had a policy, which was enforced, of any trade of over $50,000 by my wife, minor children or myself had to be approved in advance. The single exception was dollars in my 401K account.
But then we were mainstream media
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