Posted on 12/13/2011 12:15:20 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
Sen. Joseph Lieberman, chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee, disagrees with Sarah Palin on whether there is proof that members of Congress are engaged in insider trading. But the independent senator from Connecticut agrees with her conclusion that legislative action on the issue is needed.
“I don’t have any evidence that there is insider trading by members of Congress,” Lieberman said Tuesday at a breakfast for reporters hosted by the Monitor. But he admitted that in the wake of Peter Schweizer’s book, “Throw Them All Out,” and a 60 Minutes segment on the subject, “a lot of people around the country including my constituents … think there is.”
One such person is Republican political icon Sarah Palin. In an op-ed Tuesday in USA Today, the former Alaska governor said that thanks to Mr. Schweizer's book and the 60 Minutes story, “we have concrete proof” to explain how members of Congress “accumulate wealth at a rate astonishingly faster than the rest of Americans and have stock portfolios that outperform even the best hedge-fund managers.”
Palin charged that "the methods of unethical wealth accumulation for our permanent political class are endless."
Earlier this month, Lieberman’s committee held hearings on alleged congressional insider trading and whether members of Congress are subject to insider trading rules, which forbid the use of non-public information for personal gain....
(Excerpt) Read more at csmonitor.com ...
All Sarah has to do is list every member of Congress and their worth when they came into office and their worth now. I think people would be surprised. Just go into the IRS records that they all file.
My guess is that Joe’s portfolio has quite a respectable rate of return.
Scum bags, it aint happening if you dont catch us?! Our current crop of Politicians are stunningly stupid.
You mean, evidence over and above to the fact that the majority of United States Senators become multi-millionaires while in office? Even though most of them are as dumb as a telephone pole?
Joe has been around too long to need evidence to be convinced that Congress takes advantage of insider trading.
His statement that he doesn’t have evidence is evidence that he is as crooked as the rest of them.
Shut up, Joe. You and your pals ain’t foolin’ anyone.
Remember: This was the guy that John McCain wanted as his vice president, not Sarah Palin.
So, Lieberman’s position is he believes there is insider trading going on in Congress, but does not believe Palin when she says it? WTF? I guess old Democrat ways die hard.
Members of Congress had a collective net worth of more than $2 billion in 2010, a nearly 25 percent increase over the 2008 total, according to a Roll Call analysis of Members’ financial disclosure forms.
Nearly 90 percent of that increase is concentrated in the 50 richest Members of Congress.
Two years ago, Roll Call found that the minimum net worth of House Members was slightly more than $1 billion; Senators had a combined minimum worth of $651 million for a Congressional total of $1.65 billion. Roll Call calculates minimum net worth by adding the minimum values of all reported assets and subtracting the minimum values of all reported liabilities.
According to financial disclosure forms filed by Members of Congress this year, the minimum net worth in the House has jumped to $1.26 billion, and Senate net worth has climbed to at least $784 million, for a Congressional total of $2.04 billion.
These wealth totals vastly underestimate the actual net worth of Members of Congress because they are based on an accounting system that does not include homes and other non-income-generating property, which is likely to tally hundreds of millions of uncounted dollars. In addition, Roll Call’s tally is based on the minimum values of assets reported by Members on their annual financial disclosure forms; the true values of those assets may be much higher.
the rest: http://www.rollcall.com/issues/57_51/And-Congress-Rich-Get-Richer-209907-1.html
Sarah is as irrelevant to the political arena as power is to the political elite. They need her, period. Her entrance onto the stage in 2008 changed their lives forever. She is everything they claim to be but are not and never will be.
Thanks, Bill, for the parsing lessons. Note the part I highlighted. I believe the broader statement of "insider trading by Congress" includes family members and Congressional staffers. But Joe is talking only about Members.
And then there was Global Crossing ...
It’s playing it both ways when morality dictates or should dictate that there is only ONE non-negotiable way. It’s a form of co-opting and making the dust settle. In any case the corrupt will be regulating themselves at which point they’ll probably have a sucker or two get in trouble (to appease public opinion which is fed up with the CASTE) and then return to business as usual with even greater esprit.
The fourth estate (the press in all its forms) was supposed to be watchdogs for this sort of malfeasance, but the MSM is in cahoots. You’ll know much more about the ladies of signor Cain (a HUGE scandal in the country that produces a high percentage of the world’s pornography) but not much about the real schmutz that effects the lives of millions and affects the cost of bread (so to speak). Principles, especially concerning the sexual sphere, are only maintained to be able to maneuver public opinion.
The same thing goes on here in Italy... The same forces defending gay pride parades become so incredibly “fire and brimstone” stern against the private sins of their enemies.
Principles in today’s world have become a useful weakness.
Rest assured that Liebermann knows what’s going on. Even the Mafia is sensitive to public opinion. Regulation means making the sure the dust settles, while their feet can remain firmly planted in the mud.
It’s in your pocket lieberman. I’ll bet that not a single congress-critter isn’t a whole lot wealthier at the end of every single year. I wonder why that is? Theives and criminals.
What are the odds that Scummer and his friends shorted IndyMac stock to make money on this? He not only inside traded he put the downfall in motion.
I didn’t get 2 pages in to the book before it became clear that these guys use their position and knowledge to make money trading stocks. Not to mention earmarks that happen to benefit their real estate investments. This is on both sides of the aisle.
We want a hearing we want to open the books on all of these criminals
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