Rod Blagojevich was on Chelsea Lately a couple nights ago and his interview solidified what I think bothers most Americans about our political culture: Exploitation.

To define, to exploit is to abuse, take advantages of, or use other people for selfish purposes.  As it relates to politics, to exploit is when one uses their position to obtain benefits or rewards which were not intended to be provided with that position, ultimately undermining the system itself. As an example, when we give an officer the power to arrest people and enforce the law, we feel exploited if we learn that the officer has used the threat of arrest to extort money from people.  When we vote to allocate money to welfare programs, we feel exploited when we feel the system is being milked by those who should not qualify.

In his interview, Blagojevich accused the FBI of twisting facts when they accused him of trying to sell Obama’s senate seat for money, a job, or a cabinet position – benefits the governorship was never intended to provide. I was happy when Chelsea responded with, “But they have you on tape saying exactly that.”

A recent NPR interview discussed the problem of SEC insider trading rules which prevent companies from trading on information not known to the public, but glaringly does not prohibit members of Congress from doing the same, despite that they obviously gain such information via lobbyists, contacts, etc routinely. As evidence, the interviewee had collected data on Congressional members’ stock returns and noted that they were 5% to 10% higher each year than his average benchmarks. Several members of Congress had the foresight to liquidate up to 40% of their holdings in AIG days before the bailout was announced. Hmmm.

When Congressional members use their power to get better than average rates on loans from Countrywide, go snorkeling to the Galapagos Islands with their families on a “fact-finding trip” to investigate global warming and coral bleaching, vote themselves a pay raise in a year of +9% unemployment, provide themselves with health and pension plans with terms more favorable that the average citizen, or benefit personally in ways not intended by those who elected them – we feel exploited.

But maybe my tactics here are wrong.  Maybe I’m following step 2 of the often criticized “Cloward-Piven crisis model”: “Make the enemy live up to their own book of rules.” Never failing to remind everyone that, “…when pressed…human agencies inevitably fall short… the system’s failure to “live up” to its rule book can then is used to discredit it altogether.”

Well, rather than just complain about the system here are my proposals to reduce the occurrence of political exploitation:

1. Money in Congressional bills should be 100% earmarked - I want to know where every dollar of every bill is going.
2. For each earmarked dollar that goes to a private/public company, 100% identification of donations from that company – We should be able to clearly see how much someone contributed to the Senator who earmarks money for them.
3. Identification of each bill and amendment – It’s hilarious to me when Congress plays dumb about who proposed an amendment. It’s like no one wants to take responsibility.
4. Term Limits – I understand that this will increase inefficiencies in some ways. You would never run a company by requiring 100% turnover every 10 years or so, but the government is not a profit-oriented institution.
5. Work toward smaller, less influential government. Why? If government were less important in our lives, politicians would have fewer goodies to trade. In return, we’d have more money and freedom.

Last 3 posts by Eric B.

• Nassim Taleb on the Economy - June 25th, 2010
• Full Circle - May 3rd, 2010
• The Dark Side :) - April 5th, 2010