Wasn't it wonderful the other day to see Democrats and Republicans working together, side by side, for a common goal--to end insider trading in Congress? How about that? They CAN agree on something after all. President Obama mentioned his eagerness to sign the STOCK Act (STOCK is an acronym for Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge) during his State of the Union message in January.
Unfortunately, a giant asterisk clouds most of the good feeling associated with this event. The STOCK Act was introduced in 2006 and was languishing in obscurity. It had a problem finding sponsors. Then 60 Minutes ran an exposé of this whole fiasco of insider trading, embarrassing political legends like Nancy Pelosi at press conferences with questions about her investing activities, and suddenly, this shunned bill found 79 new sponsors in the week after the 60 Minutes piece aired in November of last year. So Democrats and Republicans were united again! When congressional insider trading was under the radar, politicians on both sides of the fence were eager to fatten their portfolio through any means necessary. Once their political chicanery was exposed, they run to support a measure that seeks to remove one of the perks of being an elected official.
This is an excerpt of what President Obama said on Wednesday, April 4, during the bill signing ceremony:
"So I’m very proud to sign this bill into law. I should say that our work isn’t done. There’s obviously more that we can do to close the deficit of trust and limit the corrosive influence of money in politics. We should limit any elected official from owning stocks in industries that they have the power to impact. We should make sure people who bundle campaign contributions for Congress can’t lobby Congress, and vice versa. These are ideas that should garner bipartisan support. They certainly have wide support outside of Washington. And it’s my hope that we can build off today’s bipartisan effort to get them done."
Let's also be grateful that a television program like 60 Minutes can wield so much power and influence. Steve Kroft did a wonderful job on this piece.
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