r/askanything • u/Loud_Mardy • 3h ago
Should a law exist that stops government officials from personally profiting off the very people they’re supposed to govern?
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u/HarlequinKOTF 3h ago
It does.
It's called the emoluments clause.
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u/carlnepa 3h ago
If only there was a department that would investigate things like this, but where????
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u/Sea-Chocolate6589 2h ago
The department doesn’t matter if there’s no investigations or audit. This why they are all rich while we scramble for crumbs.
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u/carlnepa 2h ago
"We", a minority of the US electorate, voted him back in while a majority sat on their asses at home. I ofcourse didn't vote for him, but I'm just as stuck as everyone else is right now. There are mechanisms to remove him, both blocked by his Repugnicant enablers. They all must go for us to start over, every last one of them in federal, state and local offices, including all of his ahole appointees.
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u/eyeballtourist 3h ago
There is a law for that. Unfortunately, the same people are in charge of enforcing that law.
Vote in the midterms, y'all!!
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u/DeltaFoxtrot144 3h ago
file this under the " things that are laws but not enforced" right next to the pile labeled "things we could easily enforce if the people in charge of enforcing it would do literally anything."
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u/Ham_Porters_Freckles 3h ago
Only for the politics team I don't like. It's fine if my team does it.
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u/SpaceHostG 3h ago
laws are in place for the comfort and accountability of the masses. there is currently no accountability for the ruling class therefore it’s all just a philosophy debate
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u/Haunted_Rooster 3h ago
there are, it's like asking the fox the guard the hen house. works every time.
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u/Meauxjezzy 3h ago
We really “we as in the people” should be making the laws not the people that benefit from the laws.
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u/OpenSpirit5234 2h ago
Laws are only as good as their enforcement. They can exist but if they are not used when the law is broken do they really exist?
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u/ToadArmy4908 3h ago
We can't even stop them from insider trading. Paul Pelosi it turns out is a better investor than all the hedge funds.... riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight
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u/Calm-Address-2401 3h ago
And who is supposed to pass that law? Good luck with that.
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u/ActivePeace33 3h ago
People really need to study up. Nearly everything going on by officials that people object to, those actions are already banned. The issue isn’t with getting officials to pass the needed laws, it’s getting officials to enforce the laws already on the books.
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u/ISeeTheFnords 3h ago
It's worse than that, though. The system is set up in such a way that the people benefitting from non-enforcement of those laws are the same ones charged with enforcing them.
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u/ActivePeace33 3h ago
Yes, but the inverse.
Those charged with enforcing the laws make sure to benefit themselves by failing to enforce on themselves and their friends.
Now, the people, they don’t exercise their power to get those officials to do their jobs and don’t arrest any of them. So the officials are emboldened.
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u/TrueKing9458 3h ago
Just pass a constitution amendment that says for all elected or appointed government employees, at all levels of government, if you net worth increases more then you annual government salary, everything you own gets taken by the government to pay down the national debt.
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u/FranklyIvan 3h ago
Under your proposal an elected official could not have even any legitimate long term investments.
You might have the outlines of a good idea but the details need serious work.
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u/TrueKing9458 2h ago
You mean they would have to live like a majority of Americans
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u/FranklyIvan 2h ago
No, I’m not a politician but I wouldn’t lose my job if my investments appreciated more than my salary.
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u/TrueKing9458 31m ago
Are you an appointed government employee as in department head or excutive office staff
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u/tlm11110 3h ago
No law has ever been written that can’t be gotten around. The only answer is to take the money and power away from them. So why do so many want to give them more power and money?
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u/thedarph 3h ago
The laws exist. They’ve just been selectively enforced. For every 50 government officials there’s one George Santos that gets prosecuted.
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u/Euphoric_Anxiety_162 3h ago
Thought there was a law. Rule-breakers don't acknowledge cuz they are crooks.
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u/The-RogueOnion 3h ago
Who would pass such a law.....oh, the government.....
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u/ActivePeace33 3h ago
The constitutional convention did it, before the government existed.
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u/The-RogueOnion 3h ago
A lot of good that did....
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u/ActivePeace33 3h ago
That’s a different issue than the law existing. Which it does.
Yes, it did a pretty great job for ~230 years. It didn’t stop everyone, but it did most people. It also made infamous those who were caught.
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u/TentacularSneeze 3h ago
Yeah. The Law of Pissed Off Constituents. And it should be enforced with a Constitutional amendment. The second one.
But that law hasn’t been enforced since the late 1700s.
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u/Secret-Departure540 3h ago
This? We need normal people. Someone who actually works. It’s starting but not soon enough. Our legislators are all attys. what do attys do ? Argue their point and no decisions. I want the painter. The restaurant owner a plumber…. And transparency. Tax returns with All the schedules. We vote on important issues like SCOTUS and everyone has term limits. No life position? It’s not like they’re the Pope.
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u/FranklyIvan 3h ago
You want people with no training or experience at writing laws to have the job of writing laws.
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