Transparency is overrated anyway, says Obama.
Insider Trading - House Rules
When it comes to reforming the Congressional exemption from insider trading rules, lawmakers get a gentleman's F minus. Broadcast April 23.
Part two of the Daily Show segment is below.
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Stock Act Failure From Congress And Obama
Columbia Journalism Review has the full story...
On Monday, President Obama quietly signed a bill repealing the major provisions of the much-touted ethics law known as the STOCK Act.
Passed in 2012 after a 60 Minutes report on insider trading practices in Congress, the STOCK Act banned members of Congress and senior executive and legislative branch officials from trading based on government knowledge. To give the ban teeth, the law directed that many of these officials’ financial disclosure forms be posted online and their contents placed into public databases. However, in March a report ordered by Congress found that airing this information on the Internet could put public servants and national security at risk. The report urged that the database, and the public disclosure for everyone but members of Congress and the highest-ranking executive branch officials—measures that had never been implemented—be thrown out.
The government sprang into action: last week, both chambers of Congress unanimously agreed to adopt the report’s recommendations. Days later, Obama signed the changes into law. The meager coverage was a striking counterpoint to the waves of media attention that accompanied enactment of the STOCK Act in April 2012—310 articles in the two weeks surrounding its passage, according to a search of Lexis Nexis. Just as striking is that none of the reports on the partial repeal consulted experts who could answer the question at hand: did the disclosure rules in fact threaten individual or national security?
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Part 2
Jay Carney and Obama get torched in this clip.
Faced with the grim prospect of being held financially accountable, lawmakers come together and cripple a bill aimed at more transparent government.