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Comment by everdev | Hacker News Reader

It would be nice if politicians had to disclose conflicts of interest when proposing legislation.

I'm sure this shot to the top of the priority list not out of some moral imperative, but because someone somewhere was losing a buck, or could make a buck if this passed.

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... Peskin is many things, but he's not someone who proposed legislation because someone bought him off.

Does he accept no campaign donations? Does he never meet with lobbyists? What do you think that is?

Reputations are good until they're not. People are fallible and there plenty of examples of politicians who have a public image and a backroom one.

I don't know Peskin and there are many honest hard working politicians, but safeguards like disclosing conflicts of interest aren't terribly burdensome for good politicians but can help generate legal consequences for the bad ones.

Having a direct financial interest is not the only reason someone can propose bad legislation. Politics run on favors and negotiations. I might not be bought off by an outside interest, but I might owe one to my friend, who might owe one to his friend, who turns out to have a deal with the outside interest...

disclose a conflict? this is what politicians do here, the place one group against another to profit off of it come election time. this to them is a freebie because they believe they can only get good will from the populace as a whole by exploiting both wealth and privilege envy.

This is just skimming low hanging fruit and a free distraction from real problems they either cannot fix or don't consider worth their time. plus they win if the "elitist" complain about having to give up their free lunch

I can understand why some are outraged but this is the old adage of, I didn't speak up when they came for the .....

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