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For decades Politicians have been promising to “Drain the Swamp” as a reference to ending corruption in Washington. Most Americans know there is corruption or unethical behavior occurring in Washington. What is the current state of the “swamp”? Many members of Congress are simply career politicians. In particular, this is the case with members of the House and Senate in leadership positions. For example, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D) has been in the House of Representatives since 1987 and the Majority of Leader (D) Steny Hoyer has been in the House of Representatives since 1981. In the Senate, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R) has been in the Senate since 1985. Similarly, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has been in the Senate since 1999. Before that, he was in the House of Representatives starting in 1981 and in N.Y. State Assembly in 1975, that’s a career politician. As you can see, these leadership positions are dominated by career politicians and swamp creatures. This means those who hold, wield the most power in Congress, determine which bills are voted upon, have the most control over which bills are enacted into law and are responsible for negotiating most major bills, spending deals/ budgets are not citizen legislators as our Founding Fathers intended and instead the political class is only focused on clinging to power. In this session of Congress, Republican Senators Mike Braun (IN) and Rick Scott (FL) introduced a constitutional amendment for term limits, as a part of their “Make Washington Work” plan. This would limit members of the House to six-terms-12 years and the Senate two terms- 12 years. This would be an uphill battle to pass as most politicians are not willing to set limits on their careers (The Hill). A constitutional amendment would likely have to exempt members of Congress or be phased in later in the future. One proposal to limit term limits without a Constitutional amendment is to reduce the pay of Members of Congress to $1 after 12 years of service, as proposed by Congressman Francis Rooney (R-FL). Currently, there are an astonishing 430 former members of Congress working as lobbyists and government influencers, showing a massive revolving door between Congress and lobbyists. Lobbyists are people whose job is to influence members of Congress and certain government officials about certain policies, usually by donating to their campaign. Lobbyists usually work for corporations, unions and other special interest groups. Furthermore, 60%, nearly, ⅔ of the 44 members of Congress taking jobs after leaving Congress to become lobbyists (Government Accountability Institute). One of the most notorious examples of this is Rep. Billy Tauzin (R) who became a lobbyist for the pharmaceutical industry the day after his term ended in Congress. While in Congress he spearheaded the budget-busting Medicare drug prescription expansion. Republican Senator Ted Cruz (TX) and Democrat Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY) are pushing for legislation to ban members of Congress from becoming lobbyists, in order to combat the revolving door (Government Accountability Institute). President Trump signed an executive order on members of his administration to ban lobbying until five years after out of his administration and a lifetime ban on lobbying on behalf of a foreign government. In addition, former members of Congress who commit crimes are still eligible to receive pensions due to a loophole in the Lobbying and Ethics Reform Act of 2007. This loophole allows former members of Congress who are appealing their convictions to receive their pensions until they are “finally convicted” exhausting all options for appeal. Former Congresswoman Claudia Tenney (R-NY) introduced a bill “No Pensions for Corrupt Politicians Act” to close this loophole. One example of this is Congressman Chaka Fattah (D-PA) was receiving a $55,000 taxpayer-funded pension after being sentenced to 10 years in prison for being convicted on charges of bribery, money laundering, fraud, and racketeering. Former Congresswoman Corrine Brown (D-FL) was also receiving her pension of $66,000 per year while fighting her conviction on fraud and tax charges (Washington Examiner). In 2016 the Supreme Court, in the case McDonell v. the United States, narrowed the definition of bribery making it much tougher for prosecutors to prosecute. In this case, the bribery conviction of Bob McDonnell (R-VA) was overturned. In response, former Congressman Claudia Tenney introduced a bill called “Upholding Integrity of Public Officials Act” which changes the definition of bribery making it easier to convict corrupt politicians. Furthermore, Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) and Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) have introduced legislation to readd statues to federal bribery laws overturned by courts, increase certain penalties regarding public corruption, adds new “things of value” that can be considered bribery and toughens bribery laws regarding entities receiving federal financial assistance. Likewise, members of Congress who have resigned due to sexual harassment are still eligible for their pensions. While taxpayers no longer fund sexual harassment settlements for members of Congress if they are accused since 1997 taxpayers have already funded 264 sexual harassment settlements at a cost of $17 million- with no requirement for the United States government to ever be repaid. Furthermore, there is a slew of federal laws that members of Congress are not required to abide by. One of the most notable examples is the Freedom of Information Act- which is a law that applies to federal agencies that require full or partial disclosure of unreleased information. Other laws Congress is exempt from that Americans must abide by are: certain reporting requirements about workplace safety, posting workers’ rights and training on workplace safety (Fox News). The Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, has a special exemption for members of Congress. Members of Congress receive $12,000 toward health insurance through the District of Columbia small business exchange despite not meeting the requirements, as Congress is not a small business and exceeding the number of employees allowed. President Obama intervened directly with the Office of Personnel Management to ensure this happened (Forbes). According to auditors from Forbes, over a four year period, Fortune 100 companies spent $2 billion lobbying and in turn received $3.2 in federal grants and subsidies. In addition, Fortune 100 companies received a total of $393 billion in government contracts. This leads to questions about why companies receiving taxpayer-funded benefits can also lobby to determine how these taxpayer dollars are spent. This also illustrates the government picking winners and losers. Some get subsidies and others have to pay taxes for the subsidies (Forbes). In a similar manner, family members of politicians are profiting from their relatives’ positions of power. The most notable example of this is Hunter Biden. While his father, Joe Biden (D-DE) was Vice President and overseeing Ukraine policy, Hunter was on the board of a corrupt Ukrainian energy company, Burisma, that was being investigated. Hunter Biden was earning $83,000 per month as a member of the Board of Directors of Burisma without having any experience in Ukraine or energy. In fact, Biden has even been discharged from the military for failing a drug test- testing positive for cocaine. Joe Biden has even admitted that he forced Ukraine to fire the special prosecutor investigating Burisma or he would withhold $1 billion worth of aid. Additionally, Hunter Biden was a board member of the Chinese company, BHR Partners and owned a 10% stake in the company. The deal for Hunter to purchase a stake in BHR Partners was finalized days after Hunter and Joe Biden traveled to China on Air Force II. Another deal that was finalized was for Hunter Biden’s company to raise $1.5 billion in investments for BHR Partners. BHR Partners is backed by the Bank of China- the Chinese government bank and BHR Partners acquired American companies that have technologies sensitive to national security. Rosemont Seneca was a “consulting” firm owned by Hunter Biden and the stepson of former Secretary of State John Kerry (D-MA), which received payments from foreign governments in an attempt to influence their parents through shifty dealings (NY Times). There are many other notable examples such as Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) who along with his wife Elaine Chao received an estimated $25 million gift from his father-in-law. His father-in-law owns a shipping company backed by the Chinese government. Years after the gift, McConnell attempted to block a bill that would punish China for currency manipulation (NY Post). The journalist who uncovered these examples of corruption has called for the Washington Corrupt Practices Act, which would limit the ability of the families of politicians to profit from foreign governments and to require public disclosures of these transactions. More about these instances about corruption can be found in the book Secret Empires. In closing, Republicans and Democrats and presidential candidates campaign on “Draining the Swamp” and as shown above there is a lot to drain. Stay tuned for Part II. Sources: Cannon, Michael F. “Congress Is Getting A Special Exemption From ObamaCare--And No, It's Not Legal.” Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 15 Apr. 2016, https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaelcannon/2016/04/15/congress-is-getting-a-special-exemption-from-obamacare-and-no-its-not-legal/#50a9d5397823. Andrzejewski, Adam. “How The Fortune 100 Turned $2 Billion in Lobbying Spend Into $400 Billion of Taxpayer Cash.” Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 14 May 2019, https://www.forbes.com/sites/adamandrzejewski/2019/05/14/how-the-fortune-100-turned-2-billion-in-lobbying-spend-into-400-billion-of-
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