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Comment by janalsncm | Hacker News Reader

Listening to Congress “debate” this made me unreasonably upset. If you as a sitting politician have received monetary benefits from a tax filing service you should not be allowed to speak.

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That's standard behavior. The US is more plutocracy than democracy at this point.

You can help choose the brand of oligarchy that runs the United States but you can't vote against it.

Technically, you can vote for anybody you like, including yourself or Santa Claus. But no, LaRouche was never going to make it.

Voting for one of two parties compresses the will of the people to a single bit.

Even worse: individual states are on a campaign (nationally) to ban ranked-choice voting [1] among their constituencies (e.g. Tennessee recently did so, to prevent a Memphis-area jurisdiction from implementing fairer voting).

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instant-runoff_voting

That should be treason.

> If you as a sitting politician have received monetary benefits from a tax filing service you should not be allowed to speak.

The rest of the world call this a bribe.

And, to be fair to both sides, politicians who have received money from taxpayers should not be allowed to speak.

Isn't that all politicians? Or is their paycheck not counted?

Surely the system will be better if we make it so only the wealthy have roles in government.

You forgot the /s

Both sides? There should be just one side; the citizens they are supposed to be representing. This comment kind of sums up how far gone we are in America.

You're mistaking corporations for people.

No. Congress represents the American people, not corporations. There is no “both sides” between people and corporations any more than there is a both sides between Americans and Canadians when discussing a trade bill.

>> If you as a sitting politician have received monetary benefits from a tax filing service you should not be allowed to speak

Should people who are receiving welfare benefits be allowed to vote?

So for you it's the same than being paid by a private corporation?

It's a conflict of interest.

Right, so anyone using roads or having gone to school shouldn't vote?

I didn't say whether anyone should or shouldn't vote. I asked a question regarding whether people with conflicts of interest should be prevented from participating in a democratic society, through voting, or as a politician.

So should that be allowed or not?

I think people using roads, or schools, or getting welfare should be able to vote, I believe politicians getting monetary benefits from tax filing services should be allowed to speak.

I mean that's a pretty harsh decision, deciding that the government determines who is allowed to speak. That's what I was responding to.

More or less of a conflict of interest than members of Congress lowering their own taxes?

I’m sorry are you implying that congresspeople are receiving monetary compensation because they live in poverty

With voting to elect a representative, the point is to choose whoever you feel best represents your interests. A conflict of interest does not matter because the self interest is kind of the point.

With voting on passing legislation, the point is to choose what best represents the interests of your constituents, conflicts of interest matter because they may cause you to not properly represent the interests of your constituents. Self interest is not supposed to be the point.

Yes

Yes, because the laws that get passed apply to them.

But the laws that get passed apply to politicians also.

When it comes to taxes, the problem is that politicians tend to be already rich enough that they need some kind of professional help doing taxes, so passing legislation that effectively forces the same onto others doesn't directly affect them in that sense, while it does аffect the campaign contributions they receive from the companies that sell this kind of software.

This is the entire point of a representative government.

No, and neither should people on federal payroll.

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