<Snip>
The following is a script of "Insiders" which aired
on Nov. 13, 2011. Steve Kroft is correspondent, Ira Rosen and
Gabrielle Schonder, producers.
The next national election is now less than a year away and
congressmen and senators are expending much of their time and
their energy raising the millions of dollars in campaign funds
they'll need just to hold onto a job that pays $174,000 a
year.
Few of them are doing it for the salary and all of them will
say they are doing it to serve the public. But there are other
benefits: Power, prestige, and the opportunity to become a
Washington insider with access to information and connections
that no one else has, in an environment of privilege where
rules that govern the rest of the country, don't always apply
to them.
Questioning Pelosi: Steve Kroft heads to D.C.
When Nancy Pelosi, John Boehner, and other lawmakers wouldn't
answer Steve Kroft's questions, he headed to Washington to get
some answers about their stock trades.
Most former congressmen and senators manage to leave
Washington - if they ever leave Washington - with more money
in their pockets than they had when they arrived, and as you
are about to see, the biggest challenge is often avoiding
temptation.
Peter Schweizer: This is a venture opportunity. This is an
opportunity to leverage your position in public service and
use that position to enrich yourself, your friends, and your
family.
Peter Schweizer is a fellow at the Hoover Institution, a
conservative think tank at Stanford University. A year ago he
began working on a book about soft corruption in Washington
with a team of eight student researchers, who reviewed
financial disclosure records. It became a jumping off point
for our own story, and we have independently verified the
material we've used.
Schweizer says he wanted to know why some congressmen and
senators managed to accumulate significant wealth beyond their
salaries, and proved particularly adept at buying and selling
stocks.
Schweizer: There are all sorts of forms of honest grafts that
congressmen engage in that allow them to become very, very
wealthy. So it's not illegal, but I think it's highly
unethical, I think it's highly offensive, and wrong.
Steve Kroft: What do you mean honest graft?
Schweizer: For example insider trading on the stock market. If
you are a member of Congress, those laws are deemed not to
apply.
<Snip>
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-18560_162-57323527/congress-trading-stock-on-inside-information/?tag=contentMain;cbsCarousel
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