The House Financial Services Committee canceled a scheduled "mark-up" of a bill to ban congressional insider trading last night, amid concerns that the committee's chairman, Spencer Bachus, was moving forward with the bill to take the heat off his personal political troubles.
Bachus' trading habits during the financial crisis were featured in a '60 Minutes' profile last month as an example of potential insider trading on the part of lawmakers. He's denied those allegations, and seized upon the trading ban — called the STOCK Act — to rebuild his image.
businessinsider.com
Apparently, Congressman Bachus, Chairman of the House Financial Service Committee, was forced to pull the proposed legislation to ban insider trading among members of congress who are often privy to exclusive financial information because House Majority Leader Eric Cantor threw a fit, or so says Politico . . .
It was House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, acting on behalf of committee chairmen, GOP leaders, and rank-and-file members of both parties on the Financial Services Committee, who made Bachus pirouette.
In a Wednesday meeting described by one source as "extremely direct" and as "very blunt" by another, Cantor ripped into Bachus, explaining that it was unacceptable for Bachus to mark up the bill without running it by GOP leaders and other chairmen with jurisdiction over its provisions.
Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/...
Sure, that's it. Cantor was mad that Bachus didn't go through GOP House Leadership first to get their blessing before he fast-tracked the STOCK Act for a committee mark up, Cantor definitely wasn't just defending an illegal racket among Congressional lawmakers that allows them to get away with the kind of activity that sent Martha Stewart to jail.
Stuff like this is EXACTLY why we Occupy.
More below the fold.
Late last year after the 2010 elections Congressman Bachus explained that he doesn't think Washington D.C. exists to serve We The People. In his view, D.C. exists to serve the banks.
“In Washington, the view is that the banks are to be regulated, and my view is that Washington and the regulators are there to serve the banks”
rawstory.com
Now, why would a congressman feel so beholden to protect and serve an industry like the banks? Maybe this has something to do with it . . .
The congressman from Alabama’s 6th district has throughout his 18-year House career raised millions from financial interests, including over $1 million from commercial banks alone, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
He has received over $800,000 from the real estate industry, $700,000 from securities and investment firms, and $415,000 from credit companies — all of which he will have extraordinary influence over as banking committee chair.
rawstory.com
As a member of the House Financial Service Committee, Bachus was a key player in the creation of the TARP program which bailed out the banks. Then he picked his stocks based on the insider information that he had as a member of congress while he was bailing out the very institutions he was personally investing in!!!
If you call out this conflict of interest in public, John Pike might be forced to pepper spray you in the face.
In light of his view that he exists to serve the banks first instead his constituents, I doubt that Congressman Spencer Bachus was doing anything other than trying to cover his ass amidst the allegations that he profited off of insider trading due to his access to sensitive financial industry information while serving on the Financial Services Committee. Regardless of why he was pushing the STOCK Act, I would have been thrilled to see it pass and become law, but Eric Cantor was not so thrilled by that prospect.
So Cantor threw a fit, and the end result is that members of congress will be able to continue to engage in illegal insider trading for the foreseeable future. Using the canard that delaying this bill is for any other reason then just delaying this bill in order to kill it, Majority Leader Eric Cantor will now be free to go back to betting against America in the bonds market for his own personal gain.
Republicans; the party of "personal responsibility". That is, unless GOP leadership is against it.
This is yet another example of a morally bankrupt gaggle of corrupt corporate stooges masquerading as a serious political party.
And they wonder why we occupy.
So I'm on a train now heading back to D.C., and I'm going to try to pay Mr. Cantor a little visit to ask him why he just made it easier for Congress to continue to do the kind of thing that landed Martha Stewart in jail.
Wish me luck.
Peace and love to all,
MoT
You can follow me on the twitter machines at @JesseLaGreca
