Corruption on Capitol Hill is “worse than you think,”

Rep. Ken Buck, R-Colo., insists. “When you first get here, you think that you are in some sort of fairy-tale novel,” Buck said. “They wine and dine you and they show you just exactly what it’s like if you play the game. It’s a wonderful life.” Things quickly change, however, if “you don’t play the game.” “If you don’t play the game … it becomes a much less conformable existence here,” Buck said.

Buck, who has served Colorado’s 4th Congressional District since 2015, previewed his new book, “Drain the Swamp: How Washington Corruption is Worse Than You Think,” published on Tuesday 4/6/17. Chapters in Buck’s book include:
“Why Washington is a Swamp,” “Play the Game–Or Else,” “Beating the Beltway Bullies,” and “What You Can Do To Drain the Swamp.” Buck said his book addresses corruption present in government today that he was not prepared for after being elected to Congress in 2014. “One of the things that I found startling when I got here is that you have to pay dues to be on a committee,” Buck said.

During the time he served on the House Judiciary Committee, Buck said he had to pay periodic dues of $200,000 to the National Republican Congressional Committee, the campaign committee of the House of Representatives.

Now, as a member of the House Rules Committee, Buck’s periodic dues are $450,000. The obligation to pay dues, Buck said, forces members of Congress to hold fundraising receptions and encourages
corrupt influences from special interest organizations who attend the fundraisers. “Who comes to those receptions with checks?” Buck said.
“Lobbyists, special interests that want something in return. So there is a game that goes on that you owe the party money and you are expected to vote with the chairman and you are expected to help special interests groups in Washington, D.C.”
Buck said there is also a significant amount of corruption in how Congress justifies spending for new project or programs. “In the book, I list very specific ways that we need to change the incentives that we have in Congress,” Buck said.

“I talk about … what we call ‘pay–fors.’ When we have new spending, we find ways to pay for that new spending program.” Some of the ways Congress could pay for a new project or program are through tax increases or cuts to other programs, both of which are unlikely, Buck said.

Instead, Congress “makes up” sources of revenue. Buck explains: So we pass a transportation bill, and in the transportation bill we say that we’re going to sell oil in a strategic petroleum reserve to pay for that transportation bill. Now, what’s fascinating about this is that the average price that that oil was purchased at is $76. The price when we sold that oil was $48. Only in government is that considered a profit. An issue with this system, Buck said, is that revenues from “pay–fors” have already been accounted for. “One of the problems is that that barrel of oil that was used in the transportation bill as a ‘pay–for’ was already sold twice before,” Buck said. This form of governing, Buck said, is irresponsible. “If everything’s been paid for for so long, how did we get $20 trillion dollars in debt?” Buck said.

In an effort to bring transparency to the “pay–for” phenomenon, Buck introduced a bill last Thursday that would require the Office of Management and Budget to track and report the revenue that “pay–fors” actually bring. “One of the bills that I just recently dropped would ask the
Office of Management and Budget to do an annual report to Congress so it is available to the American people on how much revenue did those ‘payfors’ generate,” Buck said.

Buck’s goal, he said, is to educate the American people about the corruption in government so they are not as naive as Buck found himself when he started working in Congress. “Before I got here, I knew that D.C. was broken, I didn’t know the specifics,” Buck said. “I’m hoping that by giving the American public the specifics, we actually have the record out there just … to make sure that people are aware.”

https://www.usatoday.com/story...shington/100298958/#

Not at all surprising.

Still disgusting.

He won't be around long, they will find some way now to end his career.

^
That's fairly straightforward. His fundraising will dry up, he'll get no support from the party. The party will find someone more controllable to run for his seat and challenge him in the primary, and that candidate will get all the support that the party and it's donors can throw at them.

quote:

“One of the things that I found startling when I got here is that you have to pay dues to be on a committee,” Buck said.

I was not aware of that. Especially dues totalling $650,000 for two committees and he's only been there for two years?

quote:

Originally posted by BBMW:
^
That's fairly straightforward. His fundraising will dry up, he'll get no support from the party. The party will find someone more controllable to run for his seat and challenge him in the primary, and that candidate will get all the support that the party and it's donors can throw at them.

Exactly. He will be dealt with. And that is precisely why Trump was untouchable by either the left or the right. He was beholden to no one.

What is surprising about expecting office holders to raise funds for the organization that helped them win election, and scale it according to the situation of the office holder, i.e., Senators must raise more than Representatives, Governors raise more than Senators, Congressmen raise more than dog catchers, etc.?

Party organizations have expenses! Those on the National Committee aren't just potted plants either. State Committees the same. They have no other revenue, realy, besides selling bumper stickers and t-shirts. Really, money doesn't just grow on trees.

At those rates, Trump could buy every important chair in Congress.
How would that go over?

Not worse than I think. Worse than I know. I imagine our oppressors are delivering us into destruction day by day.

Disgusting. The founding fathers never imagined it would be this corrupt. This is one of the reasons they imagined politicians would get elected for a term or two then leave Washington to go back to their occupation. Not make careers out of "serving" their country. Term limits would still go a long was to reducing this problem. No wonder they all dislike Trump. They may be discovered, and the Golden Goose may disappear. The level of payola boggles the mind.

I'm curious whether campaign finance "reform" made this situation better or worse.
Remember the fight over earmarks? GOP voted to take them out, then many wanted them back in when they took over, but I don't know what the current status is. "Earmarks" were actually small potatoes compared with what BHO did.

April 24, 2017
Draining the Swamp with Article V
By Fritz Pettyjohn

The publication of Rep. Ken Buck's Drain the Swamp: How Washington Corruption is Worse than You Think could not be more timely. The campaign for Buck's recommended corrective – the use of Article V, by the states, to adopt a Balanced Budget Amendment (BBA) – is at a critical phase.

Thirty-four state resolutions are required in order for Congress to call an Article V Amendment Convention, where the proposed language of a BBA would be drafted before being sent back to the states for ratification by three quarters of them. For seven years, the BBA Task Force has been working in state capitols to pass such resolutions and today has 28 in hand. The remaining target Legislatures – all under complete Republican control – are Wisconsin, Minnesota, South Carolina, Virginia, Kentucky, Montana, and Idaho. Vigorous campaigns to adopt BBA resolutions are underway in all of them, and there is a clear path to 34 in 2018.

It may well be 2018 or never for an Article V BBA. Forces funded in large part by George Soros and his network of organizations are dead set in opposition. Working with the traditional opponents of Article V – principally the John Birch Society – these groups were able to stop passage of the Article V BBA resolution in Montana in 2015. They also convinced the Democrat leadership of the Delaware and Maryland Legislatures to rescind BBA resolutions passed in the 1970s. Moreover, they were able to elect new Democratic majorities in the Nevada and New Mexico Legislatures in the 2016 election. As a result, New Mexico rescinded its 1970s BBA resolution, and a similar rescinding resolution has passed the Nevada Senate and awaits action in the House.

Even if Nevada does rescind, the remaining Republican-controlled Legislatures in the seven states listed above will be able to reach the goal of 34 in 2018. There are no other states where Democrats have the power to rescind. However, Republican strength in state legislatures is at a historic high, with 33 of 50 under total Republican control.

As the 2016 losses in New Mexico and Nevada demonstrate, any state that reverts to Democratic control could quickly rescind its BBA resolution. If the Colorado Senate turns Democratic in 2018, its resolution will likely be rescinded, putting the goal of 34 out of reach without Democrat help. And George Soros has purchased enough clout in the Democratic Party to prevent that from happening.

Soros has selected Common Cause as his principal vehicle to oppose the BBA. Their anti-BBA campaign is an exercise in hypocrisy. They claim to oppose not the BBA itself, but the use of Article V to achieve it. Their rescission campaigns in Maryland, New Mexico, and Nevada focus exclusively on the danger of a runaway Article V Convention. Their rescinding resolutions make no reference to the BBA, instead seeking to repeal any and all pending Article V resolutions.

And yet, on their home web page, linked above, they ask their followers to "Take Action – Californians, Help Overturn Citizens United." But there's only one way to get that done, and it's by using Article V. Left-wing Wolf-Pac seeks to do just that and has passed Article V resolutions in five states and is active in state capitols across the country. As the link on their home page demonstrates, Common Cause has supported Wolf-Pac's campaign in the past. But that's down the memory hole now that they have signed on with George Soros.

Two hundred leftist organizations have banded together with Common Cause to kill the BBA. They will team up with the John Birch Society in 2018 in an all-out war on the entire Article V movement. If we're ever going to drain the swamp, it has to happen next year.

The most potent opponent of the BBA in the Republican target states will be not Common Cause, but the John Birch Society. They are particularly strong in the Mountain West, and while victories have recently been won in Utah, Wyoming, and Arizona, the Birchers and their right-wing allies have stopped BBA resolutions in Montana and Idaho. There are pockets of Bircher strength as well in Wisconsin, Minnesota, South Carolina, and Virginia. The fear of a runaway convention is their only selling point.

In order to counteract such arguments, the Arizona Legislature, under the leadership of Speaker J.D. Mesnard and Senate president Steve Yarbrough, recently passed HCR 2022, which contains a call for the first national Convention of States since the Washington Peace Conference of 1861. The purpose of the convention, to be held in Phoenix on September 12, 2017, is to propose the rules and procedures that would be used at a subsequent Article V Amendment Convention, which will convene once 34 BBA resolutions have been passed.

As in all such conventions in American history, voting will be one state, one vote. In their deliberations, the commissioners to the Phoenix Convention will demonstrate to the right-wing skeptics that an Article V Convention will not run away – in fact, it is opposed to running away. It is expected that the commissioners to Phoenix selected by the presiding officers of the 99 state legislative chambers will be, by and large, the same individuals who would be appointed to attend an actual Article V BBA Convention in 2018. If this Convention of States succeeds, the path to 34 in 2018 will be cleared.

Representative Buck is to be congratulated on Draining the Swamp. It could not have come at a better time. With his help, the campaign to use Article V for the first time in American history will succeed next year. We won't just drain the swamp. We'll restore a bedrock principle of the Constitution: federalism, or the dispersal of political power.

Fritz Pettyjohn is a former Alaska House minority leader and state senator. He blogs at ReaganProject.com.
http://www.americanthinker.com..._with_article_v.html

quote:

Corruption on Capitol Hill is “worse than you think,”

Impossible, given my current opinions of Washington.

The problem with this getting through is that the states don't really want a balanced federal budget. They all want more money from the feds, so they can give candy to their constituents, while not having to tax their constituents to pay for it. Limiting federal deficit spending would make this much more difficult.

Also, I worry about what shenanigans can be pulled during such a convention. It's up in the air as to whether the scope can be limited by the petition. I could be a free for all. If so, I'd bet dollars to donuts, some states will introduce Second Amendment repeals.

quote:

Originally posted by chellim1:
April 24, 2017
Draining the Swamp with Article V
By Fritz Pettyjohn

<snip - don't need to repeat entire article>

http://www.americanthinker.com..._with_article_v.html