Reply #7: Which is clearly silly . . . [View All]

[MrModerate]

However, I'm not sure that eliminating ALL gifts is realistic. Frankly if someone "petitioning the government" wants to give a legislator a T-shirt or ball cap -- or even take them out to dinner -- that's probably OK with me. It's the campaign contributions wrapped up with gifts, plus lobbyists as enablers of fundraising events that gets ethically murky (or maybe just plain criminal).

For that matter, I think legislators need to take educational trips (no golf included!) more than one might ordinarily say was kosher. Sometimes these are sponsored by universities or NGOs, and perhaps they should be allowed. Alternatively, highly transparent travel budgets could be increased.