[Donald Trump is not the only politico to talk about draining the
swamp while eagerly drinking from it, a new book shows ]
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FILTHY RICH POLITICIANS REVIEW: MATT LEWIS SKEWERS BOTH SIDES OF THE
AISLE  
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Lloyd Green
July 30, 2023
Guardian
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_ Donald Trump is not the only politico to talk about draining the
swamp while eagerly drinking from it, a new book shows _

money, by thejedi

 

When Covid began to ravage the US, Donald Trump lied through his teeth
but Nancy Pelosi flaunted her assets. Trump repeatedly claimed
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virus “would go away”. More than a million deaths followed
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then House speaker, treated us
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watching her eat $13-a-pint ice cream out of fridges that cost
$24,000
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Let them eat artisanal desserts?

[The US Capitol, in Washington.]
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Filthy Rich Politicians: journalist Matt K Lewis on Trump, ethics and
money in Washington
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Read more
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Forbes pegs Trump’s wealth at $2.5bn
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Based on public filings, according to Matt Lewis in his new book,
Filthy Rich Politicians, Pelosi and her husband’s net holdings are
estimated to be north of $46m. In 2014, Trump lied when he said
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tax returns would be forthcoming
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office. In 2022, Pelosi successfully fought
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attempt to ban members of Congress from trading stock. She, it was
widely noted, does not trade stocks. But her husband does. Practically
speaking, that is tantamount to a distinction with little difference.

Despite it all, when Trump tore into Washington corruption, promising
to “drain the swamp”, his message resonated. A congenital grifter,
he knew what he was talking about.

“Right now, your average member of the House is something like 12
times richer
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the average American household,” Matt Lewis says
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“And that, I believe, is contributing to the sense that the game is
rigged.” More than half the members of Congress are millionaires.

Lewis is a senior columnist at the Daily Beast and a former
contributor to the Guardian
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he performs a valued public service, shining a searing light on the
gap between the elites of both parties and the citizenry in whose name
they claim to govern. Subtitled “The Swamp Creatures, Latte
Liberals, and Ruling-Class Elites Cashing in on America”, Lewis’s
book is breezy and readable. Better yet, it strafes them all. The
Bidens and Clintons, the Trumps and Kushners, right and left – all
get savaged.

Looking right, Lewis mocks Steve Bannon and Ted Cruz for their faux
populism, which he views as self-serving and destructive.

“The very elites who seek to rule us also rile up the public to hate
their fellow elites,” Lewis bitingly observes. “Although he claims
to be a ‘Leninist’, Bannon is also ‘an alumnus of Harvard
Business School, Georgetown School of Foreign Service, Goldman Sachs,
Hollywood.’”

As for Cruz, he graduated from Princeton and Harvard Law. The husband
of a Goldman Sachs managing director, he helped pave the way for
making loans by a candidate to their own campaign a money-making
proposition. In a 2022 decision, in a case between Cruz and the
Federal Elections Commission, the US supreme court ruled that a
$250,000 loan repayment limit violated the first amendment and
Cruz’s free speech rights. In plain English: a deep-pocketed
incumbent can now tack on a double-digit interest rate to a campaign
loan, win re-election, then essentially collect a handsome side bet.
As Lewis notes, Cruz was already no stranger to ethical flimflam.

Lewis also graphically lays out how swank vacation sites are de
rigueur destinations for campaign fundraisers and political retreats
– being in Congress is now a portal to spas, tennis and haute
cuisine – and how book writing has emerged as the vehicle of choice
for members of Congress to evade honoraria restrictions.

Lewis quotes Marco Rubio telling Fox News: “The day I got elected to
the Senate I had over $100,000 still in student loans that I was able
to pay off because I wrote a book.” In 2013, Rubio received an
$800,000 advance. A decade later, he branded Joe Biden’s student
loan forgiveness plan “unfair”.

This, remember, is the same Florida man who once exclaimed
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“It’s amazing … I can call up a lobbyist at four in the morning
and he’ll meet me anywhere with a bag of $40,000 in cash.” Like
many in government, Rubio blurs the line between the personal and the
public.

Lewis also tags Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, a member of the progressive
“Squad” in the House, for cronyism amid the throes of Covid. At
the time, she proposed legislation that would have canceled rent and
mortgage payments while establishing a “fund to repay landlords for
missed rent”. The bill went nowhere but as luck would have it, Squad
members Ayana Pressley (Massachusetts) and Rashida Tlaib (Michigan)
took in rental income as Covid blighted the land. In 2021,
Pressley’s rental income surged by “up to $117,500”.

As for Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, perhaps the most visible
Squad member, Lewis raps her for appearing at the 2021 Met gala
wearing a backless gown emblazoned with the words “Tax the Rich”.
AOC’s Devil Wears Prada moment, Lewis says, “underscores how
far-removed today’s Democrats
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party of the working class”.

It was not something Eleanor Roosevelt would have done.

“Such stunts feed the sense that our public servants are indulging
in hypocrisy and taking advantage of the system,” Lewis writes.

Elsewhere, Lewis describes Greg Gianforte “allegedly
body-slamming” Ben Jacobs, then of the Guardian, during a House
campaign in Montana in 2018. Here, Lewis goes easy on Gianforte, who
is now governor. Gianforte pleaded guilty, a fact Lewis acknowledges.
With that plea, the Republican’s lack of self-control went beyond
the realm of “alleged” and into established fact.

Filthy Rich Politicians closes with a series of proposals to boost
confidence in the system. Lewis calls for a ban on stock trading by
members of Congress and their families, heightened transparency and
increased congressional pay. The prospects for his proposals appear
uncertain.

Last week, Josh Hawley of Missouri – for whom, like Cruz and many
other Republicans, Lewis’s wife has worked
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of New York introduced the Ban Stock Trading for Government Officials
Act. The public overwhelmingly supports
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substance of the legislation. Whether Congress steps up remains to be
seen.

“Let me tell you about the very rich,” F Scott Fitzgerald once
wrote. “They are different from you and me.”

*
_Filthy Rich Politicians_ _is_ _published in the US
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Hachette_

_Lloyd Green [[link removed]] is an
attorney in New York and served in the US Department of Justice from
1990 to 1992._

_Original reporting and incisive analysis, direct from the Guardian
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* Money in Politics
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* Dark Money
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* Democratic Party
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* Republican Party
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* Donald Trump
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* Nancy Pelosi
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