Late last week, the Republicans in Congress passed a joke of an ethics bill. They basically passed the bill so they could tell their constituents that they passed "ethics" reform in this election year.However, this bill does nothing to fix the problems that exists in Washington today.
Congressman Ford understood that. And that is why he voted against the bill:
"I voted no on this weak ethics reform bill because it does very little to rebuild people's confidence in Congress' integrity. To fix it, we should ban gifts to Congress, the Senate and their aides, double to two years the ban on lobbying by former members of Congress, end lavish junkets paid for by private groups and end all pork spending until we balance the budget. Even then, we should force up or down votes on every piece of pork submitted," said Congressman Ford.
"This bill fails even the basic test of common sense. Ethics reform should fix the problem, instead of encouraging and pardoning the same behavior. My Republican colleagues have botched it again," said Ford.
The Congressman is correct: the Republicans have botched it again.
It seems after as many scandals they have been through just in the past year, they would learn and would be eager to get serious about ethics reform.
However, when you have leaders like John Boehner who is K Street's best friend, what else can one expect?
It is time to send a new generation to the Senate to fix the problems that the old generation is unwilling to fix.
Read about Congressman Ford's actions on ethics reform here! (1 , 2, 3)
Read about John Boehner's views opposing ethics reform here!
Read about John Boehner's broken promises regarding ethics reform here!
