For Congress Morality Is The Color Of Money

As parents know, children justify all sorts of juvenile behavior. Ditto with lawmakers when public or private funds are dangled in front of them. The difference is, as parents we get to say “no” on the spot.

A June 21st USA Today story - “Legislators Trek On Private Dime” - revealed that nonprofits and special interests have spent 73 percent more the first quarter of 2010 when compared to 2009. According to the story 24 trips to places like Spain, wives often included, were paid for with $435,000 in private funds. One would think there is a bustling economy and nothing to work on in Washington these days.

Rather than see a potential conflict, many of our elected legislators perceive morality as the color of money. When they get caught with their hands in the cookie jar, Congress blusters a little, sometimes even admonishing a representative as a token gesture. Then before the gavel dust settles, they move on to another cookie jar.

Sometimes the cookie jar is labeled private funds. Sometimes it’s public. The stimulus package jar has been hot lately. Sometimes the jar is labeled campaign donations or “speaking fees” or perhaps prearranged book sales. Everybody knows their weakness. It’s money and freebies. Like most addicts they won’t admit they have a problem.

In 2006 the public reacted negatively and Congress passed token travel reform with the usual loopholes. It did slow things from the “conference” trip cookie jar; from $5 million in private money for 2100 lawmaker trips in 2006, to $3.5 million for 1075 trips in 2008. Things even stayed cool for a while with folks like Charlie Rangel drawing admonishments for taking Caribbean trips in 2007 and 2008. But like a dripping spigot increasing velocity, privately paid trip funding is picking back up.

If you ask anyone taking or receiving the influence package, it’s always for the purest of reasons. Representative Michael Burgess, for example, took a $7981 trip this year to Spain. He also took 7 trips in 2009. He told USA Today, “ None of the trips were done for pleasure. The other option is take trips at taxpayer expense and that would obviously raise concerns for people as well.” That’s congressional logic.

Let’s correct Rep. Burgess’s reasoning then for the record. The other option is to not take the trips at all! Not to let the cat out of the bag, but we now have the internet as a learning tool and one can stay put in Washington. If that is not sufficient, try “gotomeeting.com”. There really are other options but one has to think outside the lobbyists and special interest box. There are other ways than to travel and dine first class with one’s spouse and associates.

It’s really got to stop. Not some of it. All of it. Not just this spigot or that cookie jar, but all of it. Consider 13,746 lobbyists spent $3.49 billion in 2009, almost equally on both parties with Democrats having the edge. Before his conviction, the money Jack Abromoff filtered reached 81 Senators and 227 House representatives. And he’s a drop in the bucket. One of 13,746 registered lobbyists.

Congress will not cure itself. They will always find another cookie jar. The best solution for the taxpayer is to vote against any incumbent who votes for any spending bill, regardless. It doesn’t matter if it is to save the life of my mother. If someone is voting for deficit spending for any reason, I no longer trust that the justification is not bought and paid for by an outside influence. If that means changing out every member of Congress every two and four year election cycle, so be it.

For those who decry that the constant change means that nothing will get done politically, my reply is, that’s a lot better than the wrong thing getting done expediently. We need to keep changing the faces until they learn they cannot settle in as a lobbyist lap dog on out time.

For quite a while now we’ve had the best Congress money can buy. That has to change.