You are naive.
How do you think congresscritters get that insider knowledge?
By creating rules that make companies hire lobbyists, come before them, make donations and beg for exemptions, assistance, tax breaks, subsidies, etc.
Then, when the congresscritter is out of office, they go to work for the lobbying firms they helped create with the rules they put in place.
Taking money from me to give to a man who has not looked for a job in three years does not enrich the politician, but it helps him get re-elected so he can continue to enrich himself in other ways.
Really?!
I guess that's why McDonald's, Burger King and other large chains are sending millions to politicians so they will allow Food Stamp cards to be used in their restaurants.
No, no enrichment going on there.
I guess that is why the congresscritter's friends get awarded contracts to re-train the unemployed, the congresscritter's friends get subsidies to hire the unemployed and the congresscritter's family gets jobs working for the companies that benefit from gov't programs.
The current system is broken and is all about getting re-elected while enriching friends and family.
It is designed so that even the most pure man gets corrupted or is driven out.
Nothing you have said even addresses , much less refutes, my original point which I will repeat here for your benefit as you apparently didn’t get it the first time....”Enriching themselves is not the pressing problem; bankrupting the nation is.” (Emphasis on pressing)
I don’t think for a minute that there is no corruption in government. I realize that members of Congress are not immune from the personal failings that afflict the rest of human kind. I am aware that many go to Washington with very little wealth and become multi-millionaires on a salary of $174,000 a year. I do think, however that all that pales in comparison to the devasting financial hole congress has put this nation in. Year after year of Trillion dollar plus deficits are a much bigger problem for all of us than some Senator hiring his daughter to fill a staff position or some Representative retiring after 10 years and taking a $ 3 Million campaign chest home with him.