Congress in Contempt: Lawmakers exempt themselves from laws they inflict on us

Can we discuss contempt today? Contempt for you.

Many of us complain that our Congress people are elitist. That they often vote in legislation that a majority of Americans don’t want. Obamacare is a prime example.

The accusations go beyond Obamacare. Many feel the way Congress taxes and regulates us shows our lawmakers are out of touch with average folks. Their Dodd-Frank laws, for instance, have killed off thousands of our community banks. Recent investment regulations snuff out opportunities for small investors. They clearly don’t hear the many pleas to reform our stupid tax system.

Further evidence of elitism comes in the form of exemptions. Congress people have made themselves exempt from any number of regulations you have to obey.

For instance, you can be jailed or fined for insider trading. That is, buying or selling stock based on information you have that the public does not. Congressmen exempted themselves from that.

They could buy and sell stocks as insider traders. Buy and sell on information only they had. Many did, and made fat profits. They could do so because they had placed themselves above the law. The law that would and could skewer you.

It took a lot of publicity to embarrass Congress enough to change this a few years ago. Without both, Congress people would still be profiting from the loopholes they created for themselves.

Suppose you are a whistleblower. You see your employer break the law. You report it to authorities. If you work in the government, you are protected from retaliation from your employer. If you work for a company, you are protected from retaliation.

Ah, but if you work for Congress, you get no protection. If you report that the Senator you work for takes bribes, he can sack you. And you cannot do a thing about it. You have no protection under the law — because when Congress wrote the whistleblower law, it exempted itself.

If you run a small business, OSHA may make your life miserable. It may seize your records. It may hound you over your recordkeeping. If one of your workers complains to OSHA, you know you can expect a visit. And maybe harassment.

If a worker within Congress complains, nothing will happen. Congress made itself exempt from annoyances like subpoenas.

If you run a business, you have to keep a variety of records for years, because various laws require you to do so. This can be a nuisance for you. And expensive.

No such nuisance for Congress. It exempted itself from the recordkeeping.

You can request information from various government agencies under the Freedom of Information Act. Can you ask for information from Congress? You can ask, but Congress made itself exempt from having to provide anything to you.

I could fill a dozen articles with examples of how Congress exempts itself from laws it inflicts upon you.

Do you wonder what possesses members of Congress? Do you wonder what is in Washington’s water?

You may have met your representative. If yours is like the handful I’ve met, you would easily think he or she is a “regular” sort of person. Why is it that when Congress people inflict laws upon you they become so elitist?

Don’t you think somebody in Congress asks the obvious question? When these birds are exempting themselves? “Who the hell do we think we are?”

The more important question is who the hell do they think we the people are? When you look at all the exemptions they have granted themselves, you might wonder if they feel contempt for us.

From Tom…as in Morgan.

Tom Morgan writes about political, financial, and other subjects from his home near Oneonta. Several upstate radio stations carry his daily commentary, Tom Morgan’s Money Talk. Contact him at tomasinmorgan.com