Rampant Insider Trading by Members of Congress

For almost three decades, Members of the U.S. Congress raided the Social Security Trust Fund to support their uncontrollable spending addiction and used the money to buy elections with constituent welfare and payoff their cronies with corporate welfare.

All the while, Members of Congress also engaged in insider trading to feather their own personal nests—strategically timing their buying and selling of stocks by using privileged, inside information about laws and regulations that affect the price of the stock, something that is illegal for everyone else in the country. Remember, Martha Stewart went to federal prison on what some knowledgeable people say was a trumped up case of insider trading, a practice Members of Congress engage in everyday, with impunity.  You see, this is just another instance where Congress puts itself above the same laws it inflicts on everyone else.
1. DEMAND Congress Return Their Ill-Gotten Gains from Insider Trading to the Social Security Trust Fund.

2. Make Insider Trading Illegal for Members of Congress Just Like Everyone Else.

Members of Congress and their aides have privileged access to valuable political intelligence, and many of them have made well-timed stock-market trades in the very industries they regulate.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Members of the House Financial Services Committee were actively and aggressively trading financial and banks stocks before they voted to bail out the banks.  Senior staff members who work for members of this committee also made very lucrative stock trades on banks, showing some remarkable timing.

In fact, an entirely new totally unregulated, $100-million-dollar industry has grown up in Washington based Members’ of Congress ability to engage in insider trading.  It’s called Political Intelligence. The scheme is to employ former congressmen and former staffers (who still have access to the committee rooms, congressional offices, and in the case of Member the floors of the House and Senate) to scour Capitol Hill gathering valuable, non-public information and then selling it to hedge funds and traders on Wall Street who can trade on it. Go to The Washington Times Times247.com to Register Your Vote on Congressional Insider Trading

When they weren’t padding their own pockets trading on privileged inside information, Members of Congress in their official capacity were putting their own re-election prospects above the law.  They stole hundreds of billions of dollars in tax revenue from the Social Security Trust Fund all those years to pay for everything but Social Security—more welfare for constituents and corporations.

The payroll tax revenues workers pay every payday—OVERPAID for almost 30 years—is supposed to be earmarked exclusively for Social Security.  Workers were told that by overpaying a trillion dollars in payroll taxes since 1985, they would be setting aside money so their benefits were paid.

IT WAS ALL A LIE.  There was no money set aside or invested.  It was all spent. Now, Social Security is running a deficit and Members of Congress suddenly want to cut Social Security benefits FOR CURRENT RETIREES in the name of deficit reduction.

Here is how Members of Congress routinely profit from insider trading.  If a Member sits on a healthcare committee and he or she knows, for example, that Medicare is considering not reimbursing for a certain drug or medical procedure, he has information that can move markets dramatically for certain healthcare companies.

If the Member of Congress can trade that stock strategically based on this privileged information—and do so legally—that is a huge profit-making opportunity. This sort of behavior that goes on routinely on Capitol Hill by the people you elected to represent you.

Another lucrative trading technique available to Members of Congress that is denied to the vast majority of regular citizens is access to initial public stock offerings (IPOs) by their cronies, which provides them the opportunity to buy a new stock at insider prices just as it goes on the market.

The typical politician enters Washington with an average wealth of a few hundred thousand dollars, yet most now leave as millionaires.

Data show that almost 50 percent of sitting Members of Congress (250) are millionaires right now. The median net worth, 891,506, is almost nine times that of the typical household.

This reprehensible behavior has gotten so bad that finally a bill has been introduced to put an end to the practice—H.R. 1148.  This bill would do three important things:

• Ban members of Congress and their staff members from buying or selling stocks, bonds, or other securities based on nonpublic information;

• Toughen disclosure, requiring lawmakers and their staffers to report transactions of more than 1,000 within 90 days; and

• Bring under lobbyist rules this new breed of Washington insider – "Political Intelligence Consultants"- who glean information by trolling the Halls of Congress to help clients make investment decisions."

But just when you think Congress might be ready to do the right thing, you discover they are even more corrupt that you could have imagined.  According to a Wall Street Journal Article, this bill, which is advertised as curbing insider-trading abuses [by Members of Congress] would only make their shenanigans easier.
Members of Congress already get better health insurance and retirement benefits than other Americans. They are about to get better insider trading laws as well. On closer examination, it appears that what Congress really wants is to keep making the big bucks that come from trading on inside information but to trick those outside of the Beltway into believing they are doing something about this corruption. For one thing, the rules proposed for Capitol Hill [in the bill] are not like those that apply to the rest of us.
1. DEMAND Congress Return Their Ill-Gotten Gains from Insider Trading to the Social Security Trust Fund.

2. Make Insider Trading Illegal for Members of Congress Just Like Everyone Else.

According to a report on CBS 60-Minutes and other investigative reporters:

• Nancy Pelosi, as Speaker of the House, made millions of dollars trading Visa stocks while holding off credit-card reform legislation.

• John Boehner, as House Minority Leader, raked in huge profits by trading health insurance stocks just days ahead of crucial votes on ObamaCare.

• Financial Services Committee Chairman Spencer Bachus is one of the most egregious stock options traders in all of Congress (he was engaged in 40 options trades during the 2008 financial crisis). The House Financial Services Committee he chairs also happens to be the very committee that is conducting the hearings on H.R. 1148 in the House. Bachus apparently has been using information learned in committee to make regular, sometimes even nightly stock trades – literally enriching himself at every possible opportunity.

• Sen. Claire McCaskill bought half a million dollars of Berkshire Hathaway stock just as the bank bailout was signed into law. Berkshire was a huge recipient of bailout money to the tune of 90 billion.

• Another member of the Financial Services Committee is Sen. Tom Carper, who also sits on the Health Subcommittee of the Senate Finance Committee. Sen. Carper was the point man on passing ObamaCare in 2009. He bought health care stocks that would benefit from ObamaCare as he was actively pushing for passage of the bill.

• Also a member of the committee is Rep. Gary Ackerman, a Congressman who received shares of stock from a friend he didn’t even have to pay for.

WHY IS CONGRESS IS EXEMPT FROM INSIDER TRADING LAWS?
Members of Congress literally have a license to steal.

Fax Congress TODAY to Stop the THEFT!

1. DEMAND Congress Return Their Ill-Gotten Gains from Insider Trading to the Social Security Trust Fund.

2. Make Insider Trading Illegal for Members of Congress Just Like Everyone Else.


Capitalist Defense Fund
4305 Fauquier Avenue, Suite A
The Plains, Virginia 20198


P.S. Don't let the politicians remain ABOVE THE LAW! Their days of insider trading and pilfering Social Security must be put to an end. Fax Congress a Letter Demanding They Make Insider Trading Illegal for Members of Congress Just Like Everyone Else.