I’ve always wondered how the members of congress get so rich after a few years in office. I guess a few of them write best-selling books (or, at least, get amazing advances on books that end up in the remainder pile), but others have a sure-fire method that works every time: corruption. The pandemic is smoking out some of the profiteers.
Senator Richard Burr got all kinds of insider briefings on the coronavirus. In public, he reassured everyone that everything is under control and that the US was well prepared.
In a Feb. 7 op-ed that he co-authored with another senator, he assured the public that “the United States today is better prepared than ever before to face emerging public health threats, like the coronavirus.” He wrote, “No matter the outbreak or threat, Congress and the federal government have been vigilant in identifying gaps in its readiness efforts and improving its response capabilities.”
In private, at a club for business people who paid $10,000 for the privilege of listening, he said something different.
According to the NPR report, Burr told attendees of the luncheon held at the Capitol Hill Club: “There’s one thing that I can tell you about this: It is much more aggressive in its transmission than anything that we have seen in recent history … It is probably more akin to the 1918 pandemic.”
He warned that companies might have to curtail their employees’ travel, that schools could close and that the military might be mobilized to compensate for overwhelmed hospitals.
Then he went on a selling spree, dumping all of his stock.
Then there’s Senator Kelly Loeffler, who assured the public that this was all a Democratic plot and that Trumpie was doing a great job.
Democrats have dangerously and intentionally misled the American people on #Coronavirus readiness.
Here’s the truth: @realDonaldTrump & his administration are doing a great job working to keep Americans healthy & safe. https://t.co/DaDX5wpeUj
— Kelly Loeffler (@KLoeffler) February 28, 2020
Meanwhile, she sits in an intelligence briefing about the virus, and immediately begins dumping stocks. Millions of dollars worth of stocks.
Both of these people need to be fired immediately. I won’t go so far as to suggest that they be hanged from a lamppost with a “PROFITEER” placard hung around their necks, but you know plenty of other politicians are playing this game and need to be discouraged. If hanging is out of the question, maybe we should require that the investments and businesses of all politicians be put in trust when they’re elected. That’ll clean up all the millionaires and billionaires in office.