Most members of the military and political and intelligence apparatus have to undergo background checks to get security clearances, and the higher the clearance the harder it is. They also are routinely double checked, maybe every two years or so. Somebody audits their bank records, and generally just looks for anything weird.
Here is my question: why would we not do the same with members of Congress who are privy to secret information? Why would we not do the same with ANYONE who is in a position where their corruption would be damaging to the well being of America and Americans? How COULD we know for sure that most of the members of Congress are not bought and paid for by foreign governments, or domestic interests? We can’t. We don’t. We have election laws, but if we catch someone taking bribes or favors, it is a rare event.
And some forms of bribery are more or less in the open, such as giving $50,000 for a one hour speech. Specific favors of that sort should, in my view, be illegal, or at least carefully monitored. You hand somebody $50,000 in a suitcase and that is illegal, but if you hand them that same $50,000 after they give a one hour speech which is nothing special, that is legal.
Or take the Clinton Foundation. It is supposedly a charity, but it paid for Chelsea’s wedding. Something like 90% of the money put in never makes it out. You can collect money then pay yourself an exorbitant salary for doing nothing.
Or take bagman Hunter Biden. Burisma wants Joe Biden to lean on the government of the Ukraine to fire a guy looking into their corruption. So they hire Hunter Biden for $600,000 a year to do nothing. It’s a job, so it doesn’t look like corruption, other than that he had no skills, and nothing to contribute, other than the connection to his father.
Or take the Chinese government “loaning” or “investing” money in a joint venture controlled by Hunter Biden, and with a perhaps secret controlling interest given to Joe Biden. They would not need to make anything. They could pay people to move paperclips from one side of the room to the other, but still need a CEO making $500,000 a year. And if they “fail”, nobody really loses.
And the line of corruption is fine. The way our system works is once you have been inside the Machine, you can spin that into an endless stream of revenue, as a consultant, lobbyist, or commentator, most or all of it legal, but much of it likely unethical. The well being of America takes a back seat to the well being of the one playing the game.
I have no objection to people making money, but we really need to keep tabs on how much money is being made, how, who is paying it, and to what purpose.
Think about it: Barack Obama would most likely not have passed the most basic security clearance to do basic things in the military. He likely could not have passed the Background Investigation to be a cop. I personally don’t think he would have passed the basic citizenship test to be hired at McDonald’s. His SSN would have come up as bogus if run through eVerify. He was President for 8 years, but most likely could not have been hired to flip burgers for $8/hour. That is insanity. All of our government is like that, when it comes to elected officials.
As a basic requirement, I think all successful candidates for office should undergo basic security screening before being sworn in. Swalwell may be just the tip of the iceberg.