2 weeks Ago
In 2012 Congress passed the Stock Act. This act/law forbids members of Congress from purchasing stocks based on inside information obtained through their various committee assignments. Matt Mooney is pictured on Tuesday, September 10, 2024.
It just stuns me to think that any member of Congress would do such a thing. My goodness, some of our elected officials were using inside information to get rich. Hard to believe, isn't it? It must have all happened before 2012.
Surely, this law enacted in 2012 put a stop to all of the shady money-making, didn't it? No, it did not. The hefty fine of $200 hasn't quite been the deterrent one might think it would be (perhaps it would have been in 1812, not 2012). Also, members of Congress have 45 days to report such trades and by that time the damage has been done, or more inappropriately, the money's been made.
Even if you were caught, members of Congress would be the ones enforcing the law, and that would be like 12 foxes convicting another fox for raiding the henhouse. It's not gonna happen. A major newspaper did a study in 2022 showing that 44 of the 50 most active traders in Congress bought or sold securities of which their committee assignments would have given them crucial, non-public information.
This is not a Democratic or Republican thing. Members of both sides have more than dabbled. Dianne Feinstein and Nancy Pelosi, most notably from the Democratic side, and Marjorie Taylor Greene, most recently, from the Republican side have been linked to making big money using non-public information.
This is just one of many ways that senators and representatives can enrich themselves. No one goes home broke. That's why they want to keep their jobs.
Studies show that over 85% of incumbent representatives are re-elected. A high majority of incumbent senators are re-elected. The same people who berate each other every day see those same berated faces after every election.
These same people who are actually supposed to be working together, but aren't, continue to be reelected. This only happens because of one thing: THERE ARE NO TERM LIMITS. I know this subject has been beaten to death, But, it needs to be.
How can anything positive ever come from a group that has fostered so much animosity toward one another, year after year, through their mostly nonsensical defenses of party lines? It can't. But, amending our Constitution to enact term limits for representatives and senators is a monumental task and one that is tilted in favor of the ones who don't want it to happen. As idiotic as our elected officials act sometimes, they are not dumb enough to vote themselves out of a job.
It takes two-thirds of both houses to vote for an amendment or 38 of 50 state legislatures to pass such a proposed amendment. The two-thirds way is never going to happen. So, it's up to the states.
It's up to us, the voting public. A voting public that I would guess is about 90% in favor of such an amendment. Folks, you really want to change our country, make a difference in the ways things are done? Then do it the old-fashioned way, the grass roots way, and make a term limit tsunami sweep across our United States.
Ensure new faces, new ideas, and new relationships in our Congress. Do that and you will have made a definitive difference in our country's future. Matt Mooney is a member of the Quad-City Times/Dispatch-Argus' Political Focus Group.
Get opinion pieces, letters and editorials sent directly to your inbox weekly!.
