Friday, January 20, 2006
Congressional Ethics Reform: Real or Cosmetic?
The expanding plume of political contamination being revealed in connection with the so-called Jack Abramoff scandal has finally forced the U.S. Congress to try to appear to do something serious to change the conditions that allow political influence-peddling to flourish.
Congressional Republicans and Democrats have offered dueling ethics-reform proposals -- in the Republicans' case, to try to stem the Abramoff lobbying scandal; and in the Democrats' case, to exploit it. Predictably, the Democrats are trying to use this scandal as an opportunity to portray Republicans as corrupt. The Republicans have tried to deflect such charges with the lame mantra they enunciate whenever they are accused of some wrongdoing: but the Democrats did it too!
The truth is that both political parties are guilty of the same conduct. The mutual finger-pointing by Republicans and Democrats would be similar to an argument between the Gambino and the Lucchese organized-crime families as to which of them had stolen the least amount of money or committed the least amount of murders.
Whether Congress actually will clean up its own act remains to be seen. Many of the proposed "reforms" are only cosmetic, such as extending from one year to two the time a lawmaker has to wait to register as a lobbyist after leaving Congress, or banning former members who have become lobbyists from the House floor. Who really believes that will make any difference?
If Congress wants to make changes that will be more than cosmetic, here are a few real reforms:
If we see some of these reforms enacted, then we'll know Congress is interested in more than its usual political expedient of appearing to do something about a problem as opposed to actually fixing the problem.
Congressional Republicans and Democrats have offered dueling ethics-reform proposals -- in the Republicans' case, to try to stem the Abramoff lobbying scandal; and in the Democrats' case, to exploit it. Predictably, the Democrats are trying to use this scandal as an opportunity to portray Republicans as corrupt. The Republicans have tried to deflect such charges with the lame mantra they enunciate whenever they are accused of some wrongdoing: but the Democrats did it too!
The truth is that both political parties are guilty of the same conduct. The mutual finger-pointing by Republicans and Democrats would be similar to an argument between the Gambino and the Lucchese organized-crime families as to which of them had stolen the least amount of money or committed the least amount of murders.
Whether Congress actually will clean up its own act remains to be seen. Many of the proposed "reforms" are only cosmetic, such as extending from one year to two the time a lawmaker has to wait to register as a lobbyist after leaving Congress, or banning former members who have become lobbyists from the House floor. Who really believes that will make any difference?
If Congress wants to make changes that will be more than cosmetic, here are a few real reforms:
- Hold the pork: end the growing practice of unauthorized earmarks, which refers to language in spending bills that directs federal dollars to private entities for projects that are unrelated to any existing federal program or purpose.
- End welfare for lobbyists: some organizations that receive federal tax dollars actually lobby for and sometimes receive more money to enable the organization to hire and pay more lobbyists to get more money for the organization. Institutions that receive federal dollars should not be allowed to use that money to lobby for more tax dollars.
- End corporate welfare: Eliminate the estimated $100 billion a year in corporate welfare subsidies.
If we see some of these reforms enacted, then we'll know Congress is interested in more than its usual political expedient of appearing to do something about a problem as opposed to actually fixing the problem.
Stumble It!