It happens all the time. Unfortunately that story doesn't sell newspapers or generate clicks... You literally aren't allowed to turn down dirty money in Congress. Your party will not support you if you do that and you'll have trouble getting anything passed. Congress members are required to collect a minimum amount from a preselected list of wealthy people. To do so requires they personally spend over 30hrs per week on the phone with those wealthy people. Term limits do nothing for us. And they might actually do more harm than good by flushing out the few diamonds in the rough...
How about we just don’t let them accept any money other than their salaries by requiring a fairly simple, yet harsh penalty if they do so? Why can’t public figures be required to provide financial records? And if they get caught they go to prison? Instead of just paying them millions of dollars in salary? It feels like if my sons didn’t like their allowance so they went out and stole money, so instead I raise their allowance 8x to appease them. Fuck that. Next time you steal you’re fucking screwed.
The problem is alot of them that have been there that long aren't good. We need to refresh our government with new blood. These politicians that have been in forever bring our grandparents politics. We need our government to better represent the ideas of current generations as we move into the future.
Screw that. If I was in there, I wouldn't be fucking bought. Not for a penny, not for a million. People need to have some fucking integrity.
Agree 100%. Disallow them from taking any money at all. It won't happen, thanks to Citizens United, but I agree that's how it should be. I'm just not sure how to make that happen. We should have publicly funded elections for positions that pay competitive wages and restrict members from working in the private sector of any field associated with any of their rulings, votes, or committees for 5 years after leaving office. But even if we can't restrict taking money we should still pay competitive wages to get the kind of leadership we want.
I think they should all be paid like teachers and have the same perks.....it's not about money for those guys...if they didn't have it they couldn't campaign to begin with...it's about power and influence and what it buys after the job that seems to be the goalpost.
Oh there are people who try that. They get nothing done and receive no support from the party and are replaced the following term. Unless they are independently wealthy and can fund their own campaign and buy their way into committee leadership roles. Like Ron Wyden.
Agreed. That's what I'd do. Except I'd never run because an honest person doesn't stand a chance right now unless they are independently wealthy. And even then... Not so much... And much better and smarter people than me see the same thing. Democrats and Republicans have a larger monopoly than Pepsi or Coke. We need better incentive for great people to run for leadership in this country.
Teachers should also be paid far better. Yes, for the vast majority of leadership we get now those are absolutely the goals. There is no other reason to do it. We'd be far better off to give good, smart people more incentive to serve us. As it is, they are far better off becoming an investment banker or getting into tech... Far better reward without having to compromise as much on your morals.
Classified records pose conundrum stretching back to Carter Kidding aside, after the whole Hillary email server debacle the above article is about what I expected for the true handling of these docs by members of our government. It's basically the honor system. If nothing was compromised and it was an accident then nothing will come of it. Biden is fine since he's president of course, and Pence will get a pass. Trump's actions still seem nefarious and that investigation should only increase. Doubt anything will happen from it though.
If anything, there needs to be new protocols on the returning of confidential documents at the end of a president/vice president's term. How and when they are returned. Where and where not such documents are allowed to be taken. It looks like for Biden and Pence papers just got mixed up, but that's still very irresponsible. If a crime is found it should be handled as such. Trump committed a crime and his case should be handled as such.
