Congress Takes Action on Elected Officials Owning Stocks
We’ve heard it a million times: The rich keep getting richer and the poor keep getting poorer. This is the sort of ad nauseam “truth” that gets crammed down our throats nearly from birth, and it perpetuates the idea that those in power will always be in power due to their own innate wealth.
And, if we’re being honest, a vast majority of this wealth is generated on the stock market – an institution that a great many Americans can’t afford to get involved with, and an institution that is directly affected by the work of our public officials.
Thusly, our public officials, (who often already have a leg up in this world due to their generational wealth), can now control the value of their own investments – at least to some extent.
This is what Congress is beginning to try to change this week.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Democratic leaders have greenlighted a plan to craft legislation that would ban members of Congress from trading stock, CNBC confirmed Wednesday.
At Pelosi’s direction, the House Administration Committee is working on drafting the rules, and the legislation is expected to be put up for a vote this year, likely before the November midterm elections.
In the Senate, several versions of a stock trading ban are under consideration, including one co-authored by progressive Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Montana Republican Sen. Steve Daines.
The pair did not mince their words.
“When you’re elected, you’re here to serve the people, not the elite, and [a stock trading ban] I think is a step forward, an important step forward, to restore the faith and trust of the American people in this institution,” Daines told CNBC on Wednesday.
A recent survey deftly illustrated the public’s support for such a ban, with 76% of Americans suggesting that members of Congress had an unfair advantage when it came to stock purchases.