Robert A. Levine 3-22-12
The number of cases of corruption and ethics transgression involving individual members of
Congress over the years has helped contribute to the abysmal ratings of America’s national legislative bodies in the eyes of the public. However, the extent of self-dealing, along with personal and family enrichment by these elected representatives of the people is given transparency by a 346 page report by CREW, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.
Instead of going to Washington to serve their constituents, it appears that the majority of the members of Congress are going to the Capitol to serve themselves. With a detailed examination of the records of each House member during the last two election cycles, Crew was able to show that over half of them or their families profited through their offices. Crew analyzed “campaign spending, budget earmarks, office accounts and lobbying by any relatives.” They found an extraordinary amount of money was generated by Congressional members for themselves or relatives through “creative accounting, self-interested budgeting and generous expense reimbursements.”
Numerous examples are given involving members of both parties in an article in the New York Times (http://nyti.ms/GHSE7C). It can at least be said that while passing laws in a bipartisan manner is close to impossible, gaming the system is an accepted bipartisan enterprise.
Though this thorough analysis of Congressional members only involved a four year period, this kind of behavior has been going on throughout the institution’s history and is common practice.
The public has forgotten the House Banking Overdraft Scandal of the late 80s and early 90s in which hundreds of members of Congress issued 20,000 bad checks for $10.8 million dollars without any penalties or fees. Among the prominent perpetrators were Republicans Dick Cheney, Newt Gingrich, and the Democratic House Speaker at that time, Tom Foley. (A more detailed account of this scandal can be obtained by downloading a free addendum to my book Resurrecting Democracy from my website http://www.robertlevinebooks.com/ – A History of Political Corruption Through 1992)
Forget transparency! Forget ethics! The sad part of this recent revelation by CREW is that many of these practices by House members are not illegal and do not violate House ethics rules. As long as the two parties play ball together in terms of allowing members to enhance their incomes in any way possible, even though they won’t play ball legislatively, little can be done to change the rules or make them act in a less self-serving fashion. This is more reason to consider the formation of centrist third party whose members come to the plate clean and make ethics reform in Washington a central tenet of their beliefs and action.
Resurrecting Democracy
www.robertlevinebooks.com
The number of cases of corruption and ethics transgression involving individual members of
Instead of going to Washington to serve their constituents, it appears that the majority of the members of Congress are going to the Capitol to serve themselves. With a detailed examination of the records of each House member during the last two election cycles, Crew was able to show that over half of them or their families profited through their offices. Crew analyzed “campaign spending, budget earmarks, office accounts and lobbying by any relatives.” They found an extraordinary amount of money was generated by Congressional members for themselves or relatives through “creative accounting, self-interested budgeting and generous expense reimbursements.”
Numerous examples are given involving members of both parties in an article in the New York Times (http://nyti.ms/GHSE7C). It can at least be said that while passing laws in a bipartisan manner is close to impossible, gaming the system is an accepted bipartisan enterprise.
Though this thorough analysis of Congressional members only involved a four year period, this kind of behavior has been going on throughout the institution’s history and is common practice.
Forget transparency! Forget ethics! The sad part of this recent revelation by CREW is that many of these practices by House members are not illegal and do not violate House ethics rules. As long as the two parties play ball together in terms of allowing members to enhance their incomes in any way possible, even though they won’t play ball legislatively, little can be done to change the rules or make them act in a less self-serving fashion. This is more reason to consider the formation of centrist third party whose members come to the plate clean and make ethics reform in Washington a central tenet of their beliefs and action.
Resurrecting Democracy
www.robertlevinebooks.com
No comments:
Post a Comment