The Urgent Need for an Anti-Corruption Pledge in Washington

A call for Congress to adopt a bipartisan anti-corruption pledge as ethics rules crumble across Washington.

The executive branch developed ethics standards and Congress passed laws against corruption fifty years ago after President Richard Nixon stepped down in shame over the Watergate theft and cover-up. These measures were meant to prevent abuses of power in areas ranging from campaign finance to war powers to anti-bribery laws.

Many ethics regulations and measures, such as campaign spending restrictions, have been overturned or ignored, and Washington seems more crooked than ever fifty years later.

The conservative editorial board of the Wall Street Journal said Democrats would greatly benefit from the stark contrast between the hundreds of millions of dollars in hidden cryptocurrency profits currently going to the Trump family and the president's claims that "two dolls" and "five pencils" are sufficient for everyone else's children.

Even Advancing American Freedom, the conservative advocacy group co-founder Marc Short termed the message elitist and harmful. Trump's defense of his intention to accept a $400 million luxury jet from the autocratic ruler of Qatar sets his tone at the top.

The Foreign Emoluments Clause of the Constitution forbids gifts without the approval of Congress, and this lavish present flagrantly breaches that clause. The 47th president, however, considers the Constitution and Congress to be a complete inconvenience.

According to Albert R. Hunt from USA News, they can begin with a straightforward anti-corruption vow that members of Congress will enact legislation to fortify ethics standards that will apply to all levels of government, including the highest ones.