Hillary & Tammy Baldwin Editorial : To Restore Trust in Gov't, Slow Wall Street's Revolving Door

[riversedge]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/hillary-clinton/wall-street-revolving-door_b_8064504.html?1441031416

To Restore Trust in Government, Slow Wall Street's Revolving Door


Posted: 08/31/2015 10:28 am EDT Updated: 08/31/2015 10:59 am EDT

One of our nation's greatest strengths is that we are governed by each other -- what President Lincoln celebrated as "a government of the people, by the people, and for the people."

But increasingly, Americans' trust in government is eroding. And a big reason for that is the so-called revolving door between government and the private sector.

Inviting outside voices into government is often a good thing. When public servants have experience beyond Washington, they bring new ideas, new perspectives, and new knowledge to the work of governing this huge, complicated country of ours. Some of America's most dedicated public servants got their start in technology, business, academia, or other fields. Most of the time, that private-sector experience is an asset, not a liability.

But in some cases, it can affect the public trust -- for example, if a public servant's past and future are tied to the financial industry. That's when people start worrying that the foxes are guarding the hen house.

The American people need to be able to trust that every single person in Washington -- from the President of the United States all the way down to agency employees -- is putting the interests of the people first.

We want to do more to make sure that happens.

Both of us have a track record of supporting stronger ethics rules. One of us -- Tammy -- has introduced legislation in the Senate to help close that revolving door. The other of us -- Hillary -- strongly supports this bill, and as president would crack down on conflicts of interest in government.

Here's what this bill would do..............

[PatrickforO]

1. A good piece of legislation.

If they can make it go, it will be great, particularly the part about fines cutting into executive bonuses. I think Hillary has it right when she says that 'this is how we begin to restore public trust. It is a good beginning. Next steps, of course, would be to end Citizens United and get corporate money out of Washington.

As a first step, this is laudable.

[SunSeeker]

2. K & R