Elected Stock

I thought of an interesting piece of legislature for elected officials that will help cut down on some lobbying and biased views.  Elected officials within the Senate, House of Representatives, and President’s office (including the Presidential Cabinet) will only be allowed to acquire income through their office’s salaries.

So if the President is paid $250k a year, that is all he can get for his 4-8 years in office.  If he owns a tenement building, he can’t claim any of the income from that building.  Any property he owns that produces income must be automatically given to a registered charitable organization, sans any applicable property taxes.  This is not tax deductible donations, either; this money never sees his tax returns as a donation.

Elected officials in the higher offices must also own no stock when they take office.  So the president is elected into office in November…he has until he takes office in January to liquidate his stocks so that he does not own any shares of any private companies.

Likewise an elected official’s immediate family must own no stock or have their own income, as well; that is children under 18 and spouses.  So the elected official and his immediate family are not weighed down by biased decisions that will benefit or detract their fortunes.

Of course, I also support getting rid of the House of Representatives and cloistering the Senate; so we already know that I don’t really like how Congress is working, huh?

~RCS