Senators unveil bipartisan deal on stock trading ban

News@lemmy.world – 274 points – 4 months ago

A bipartisan group of senators reached a deal Wednesday on legislation to ban stock trading by members of Congress, setting the bill up for action in the Senate later this month.

Bill dies in committee in 3, 2, 1...

Or allows their spouses to trade

Or has zero teeth

Etc

From the article:

The deal would immediately prohibit members of Congress from buying stocks and selling stocks 90 days after the bill is signed into law.

It would also ban member spouses and dependent children from trading stocks starting in March 2027. Penalties for violating the law would either be the monthly salary of a lawmaker or 10% of the value of each asset they buy or sell.

So a 10% tax?

Kickback*

Most taxes on asset sale is based on profit, subtracting the bought price from the sold price. Given the wording the tax would be on the sale price, not the profit.

So they just have to make more than 10% and they can still do it without a real barrier?

Or just make so much that the $174k salary they could be fined is a reasonable fee.

I don't think any of them become millionaires on their salary.

$170k a year is pretty good

More than pretty good, and certainly enough to accrue a million plus in assets over the span of a career.

But they sure do with their insider trading.

Sounds like zero teeth to me if the fine is just "the cost of doing business"

Spouses and dependent children only? Then it's time to call mom and dad! Also brother, sister, cousin, uncle, etc.

AFTER BEING SIGNED INTO LAW seems like a huge loophole to me. They can just trade while they're talking about it or right after it passes but hasn't been signed, etc etc.

That's how laws work. You can't generally make something illegal retroactively, otherwise you could change the law to persecute anyone you want.

How would you want them to approach it?

I dunno maybe they should be subject to more stringent rules like people at banks and such? If you can just trade your stocks right before you pass a law, what's the point of the new rule? That's part of why they're under fire in the first place isn't it? They have insider information. Saying you can't trade after the fact seems like it's too late to me. Maybe I didn't explain that well idk.

I understand your point, but that's what this law would theoritcally accomplish. It would limit representatives/senators from being able to trade stocks (a higher standard than an average citizen). While they can buy/sell stocks before the law, that's just the current state of affairs.

Regarding the timing of trades, etc. The value of their insider knowledge is really only beneficial over long periods of time. Yes they could buy/sell stock in the interim, but preventing it long term would be an actual win.

I don't disagree with you. Progress is progress. I just wish it was more.

YES, FUCK. How do we let people with some of the most insider knowledge profit off of that at the expense of the American people? Making money in the market isn't just printing money: that money comes from others who lose out because they aren't cheating.

I'll be shocked if this actually becomes law.

Being a congress member is about civil service, serving Americans. It's not about self service or family service. They should put Americans before themselves. If they can't do that, go work in the private sector.

havent they tried this a few times.. and each time its either abandoned or some loopholes are created making the endeavor pointless?

From the article:

**The big picture: **Previous efforts to get a stock trading ban passed through Congress have failed over the last few years.

But the bipartisan backing in the Senate could tee up the bill for rare progress during an election year.
The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee will mark up the bill on July 24.

Penalties for violating the law would either be the monthly salary of a lawmaker or 10% of the value of each asset they buy or sell.

Because I'm sure no one would make more than that and just take the trade off. And then take credit for saving the tax payers money. That's definitely not the kind of thing that would happen in the Congress I know.

if this law becomes a 10% levy on politicians trading stocks, ill take that as a win

People settling like this just empowers these people to continue grifting us. We shouldn't be satisfied with the bare minimum.

I won’t be satisfied. But I’ll be happy that it’s better than before.

Same logic as I have for most climate laws.

"We have finally figured out a way to pass this law with a big enough loophole for us all to continue to partake in all of the insider trading we want through other family members or our bagmen. I mean lawyers."

Honestly though, Merkley on board is actually a great sign in my opinion.

Meh I lost some respect for Merkley when he did his publicity stunt of bringing the media and trying to get into the ICE facility unannounced to see how the kids were living under Trump but then never mentioned the detainment or living conditions again once the news cycle refreshed. Wyden on the other hand has been killing it by blasting the government on matters of privacy and surveillance for years with his position on the Intelligence Committee.

In any case, with this being a bipartisan bill, I'm sure there are healthy loopholes carved out (or plans for future amendments) in this bill.

YOU'RE RIGHT I mixed them up!

Fuck yeah my boy Ron. Fun fact I saw him in a Portland coffee shop not that long ago. If you didn't know him you'd never guess. He blends right in as an average older dude lol

Hmm. Is there any restriction on them providing information to someone else and having them trade? The article text doesn't say so.