Ron Paul is the headliner in today’s Robert O’Harrow Jr. and Dan Keating’s article titled Lawmakers’ Committee Assignments and Industry Investments Overlap. The premise of the article is a vital one, to challenge whether lawmakers should be allowed to own stock in companies and industries that they are elected to regulate. In an age where, to the detriment of the people, the merger of Industry and State couldn’t be more obvious, all members of Congress should have their campaign finances and investments scrutinized.
Corruption is defined as; Giving or obtaining advantage through means which are illegitimate, immoral, and/or inconsistent with one’s duty or the rights of others. Corruption often results from patronage.
It is because corruption has become the norm in politics that this article should not be ignored. Politicians who receive substantial benefits from industries where landmark legislation is being proposed should at least remove themselves from shaping the legislation. It seems that industries swirling in recent scandals should be at the top of the list of such inquiries, like the banksters, the oil industry, and health insurance and big pharma companies.
Last time I checked the Gold miners were not under criminal speculation like the other industries mentioned here. Nor is there any landmark legislation for the gold industry being proposed. Therefore it is disingenuous at best to lump Ron Paul in with the real corporate whores in the government, and it’s a distraction and a targeted smear at worst. Read Washington Post article below:
Washington Post
June 14th, 2010
Rep. Ron Paul is captivated by gold. Over the past two decades, he has written books about the virtues of gold-backed currency. He has made uncounted speeches about the precious metal. He even took a leadership post on the House subcommittee that oversees the nation’s monetary policy, mints and gold medals.
But his focus on gold goes beyond the theoretical.
In recent years, Paul (R-Tex.) has poured hundreds of thousands of his own dollars into stocks of some of the world’s largest gold-mining operations, according to a review of his financial disclosure forms by The Washington Post. In 2008, while advocating for the United States to reinstate a gold standard, he reported owning up to $1.5 million in shares of at least nine gold-production companies. In addition, he disclosed up to $200,000 in silver stocks. In all, those holdings represented close to half of his assets.
The intersection of Paul’s investments, policy convictions and congressional duties is acceptable under the ethics rules that govern lawmaker investing, a code of behavior that stands in stark contrast to the stricter regulations that government and private executives typically must follow.
But the mix of his interests — when stock and other private-sector investing on Capitol Hill is near an all-time high — underscores an age-old concern: How to ensure that congressional leaders are acting in the interests of voters and not themselves?
Paul said that for him, there is no conflict, because his advocacy of gold is consistent with his views on monetary policy, something that everyone knows he has been discussing for more than 30 years.
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