The Liberty Daily 
Members of Capitol Hill have been debating whether there should be restrictions on their investments in the stock market and directly into companies, particularly those in which their legislative actions have implications. It’s one of the saddest states of our government that this is even debated; in any institution that isn’t marred by corruption, this shouldn’t even be a question. But we’re talking about Congress where shady deals happen every day.
Detroit Lions offensive lineman Tyrell Crosby had a question he posted to Twitter.
“If as an NFL player we aren’t allowed to bet on games(which I fully agree with), why are government officials allowed to buy stocks/stock options?”
If as an NFL player we aren’t allowed to bet on games(which I fully agree with), why are government officials allowed to buy stocks/stock options?
— Tyrell Crosby (@Tyrellcrosby) January 18, 2022
Crosby majored in public policy and management while at Oregon, so he’s not asking the question as an uninformed citizen. It’s a question that more and more people have been asking, and considering his Tweet received over 50,000 retweets and 300,000 likes, there’s a good chance more people will be asking similar questions.
Sports Illustrated reported:
According to Insider, 54 members of Congress “failed to properly report their financial trades” as directed by the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act of 2012. The penalty for failing to quickly disclose a trade is a relative pittance for most members of congress, usually totaling $200.
In the first few weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic, members of the U.S. Senate sold millions of dollars worth of stocks after a briefing on the virus. There has been a renewed push to ban all trades by members of congress from both sides of the aisle in recent weeks.
Betting on games has long been banned for athletes, and as Crosby says, for good reason. And he likely isn’t alone in believing that other high-profile professions should be held to similar ethical standards.
It’s sad that Congress has to debate the issue of whether or not they should be investing in companies they can directly affect, but it’s even sadder that this issue hasn’t been remedied by now. Shows how corrupt Capitol Hill really is.
