Years, and i find you to be a singularly happy and hopeful and patriotic person pick anything anyone who cares about a system of governance and representation learn a lot from your hard work and your deep research. Despite the subtitle, thewa creatures, latte liberals and ruling class elites cashing in on america, you do not aim with filthy rich politicians to enrage her fellow citizens. You instead outline rational undoable , doable commonsense reforms that we can all support and we should. Shso lets dig right in. Why does it matter that politicians are rich . Even if theres a perception that they are allowed to feather their nests . Yeah. Look, i think the reason it matters is that it is eroding trust in liberal democracy and elected officials. We have seen a correlation, i would say, and the f less for fe decades between the gap widening between our elected officials and normal average americans. And at the same time weve seen the erosion of trust in our elected officials. Now, that parallels a loss of trust in a lot of institutions, but politicians are actually atm the bottom, members of congress specifically less popular than colonoscopies essentially. So thats why the book matters. And have always been richer than the rest of us . I think that clearly politicians in general have been generally been people who are richer certainly if you look at president s, George Washington was incredibly wealthy. We think of franklin roosevelt, theodore roosevelt. Donald trump. Its a long list. I think the real difference is the lower chamber. Of the house of representatives, and since about the time i was ten years old their wealth has doubled. And meanwhile, the wealth of the average person has kind of been a flat line. And in some cases gone down. Thaw average member of congress is about 12 times richer. The average american household. So i think as that gap has grown in some of the this trust and the sense is that the game is rigged. And you know, there are politicians to talk about the game being rigged talk about the swamp in order to exploit it and to sort of play on populist sympathies. But the truth, they kind of do have a point as illustrated in the book. Meanwhile, they are it. So populism is rising because theres a tension in the fact that americans can no longer on jobs that provide a living wage. Meanwhile, theyre represented by people who are wealthier than them, who continue to get while they are Public Servants yet yet being loaded does not seem to be such a problem because in your book you note that rich and compean so theyre hit on this by their opponents all the time often win. Yeah how. Well i think its partly the same reason that people can hate on congress in general but they vote for their own congressmen and so like in north dakota for example john hoeven is a very very wealthy us and in the decade so that hes been in congress his wealth has doubled and his opponent tried to use it against him and it didnt work at all and we see happening in many races don. Beyer in virginia the very rich car dealer had was used against him a democratic primary last cycle didnt work at all. And i think that basically it doesnt resonate as a Campaign Issue against specific member, but i think that collectively this sense that politicians are getting rich richer than us, which is a little bit problematic, but theyre oftentimes using their perch to feather their nest. I think that has the of kind of eroding trust in the Institution Even if you still vote for your own member of congress. So you list the ten richest president s, which i was fascinated by. Donald trump tops the list with John F Kennedy behind him whose peak net worth you was 1. 1 billion. Who right now is the richest politician. And right now its j. B. Pritzker whos the governor of illinois, is the richest in america. That interesting family. I believe there are 11 billionaires in his family. I think its hyatt fortune, the hyatt fortune, if im not mistaken and in his race, his last for governor of illinois. There were three billionaires running that race alone. So thats the kind of money were talking about. The richest senator right now. We believe. And by the way, always have to have a little bit of an asterisk here. Politicians make it impossible to know exact how rich they are. They have to they have to report their their finances. But its very broad ranges. Ere arehis that they dont have to report that that so we believe its rick scott from florida former governor or current senator would be the member of congress. So you write about a system where the rich get elected and elected rich why do these people even want the job . I think there are a bunch of reasons why rich people run some. It i think is they really want to good i look i dont buy argument that theyre running to cut their own tax rate or Something Like that i dont i think thats overplayed they could be easier to own politicians than to be one i think some of these politicians are running because they rich people are running because they really think they can make a difference in some cases. I think its like the transitive property of expertise. You know, they believe i was great at cloud computing. I can our Health Care System i think thats a little bit naive mean i know ive worked in my past life when i was working in politics. Ive worked for politicians and who were very successful. And one thing business whatever and it wasnt necessary eerily transferable to government or even campaigning but i think thats a natural set. I think also politicians to run for office for the same reason im sorry rich people want to run for office for the same reason that rich people want to buy rocket rides into outer space or own baseball teams. You know, theyre bored and its something something for them to do. And at the end of the day, i in a way i understand theres something nice about rich people going into because i feel like id be on a beach somewhere, like, you know, like drinking, you know . Of course its a lighter. Whatever beer you like, you prefer. I dont know that i would actually to go into public service. So in a way, i it but i do think troubling when the average person represent us is like 12 times richer than us. I mean its hard to believe that that they really are in touch with the average persons concerns. Having said that, im less concerned about rich people than i am about people getting elected. And cashing in. So regular joes cant take leave and they cant quit their jobs to campaign. So how is the system not stacked against them participating . It totally is against regular joes and not even joes. Even people like me. A few like a year ago, my wife and i were going for a walk. I live in i live in West Virginia. My dad was a prison guard 30 years. I live in West Virginia. But i get do this awesome job right about politics, about politics. And my wife is, a republican political fundraiser and so with that is the backdrop were on this walk. I was telling her, im like you know, since we live in West Virginia, if the political environment werent the way it is, theres this scenario where could possibly run. I mean, theres an open governors in West Virginia right now. Theres an open theres a Competitive Senate seat which opened up the house seat where i live. And im like, you know, maybe in some scenario i could run for that house seat. And shes like, well, no, you couldnt. And im like, well why not . I like your shes like, you dont have enough money. And i said well, but youre a youre a political fundraiser. I know a lot of people. Ive been doing this a long time. And she said, let me, tell you what i tell people who call me up, who to run and not for president not for senate, but just for the house you have to either your campaign 300,000 or raise that much money from your personal christmas card. Listen network before its even worth my time try to introduce you to Political Action or rich donors and like even i, someone has worked in this industry for a couple of decades now. I couldnt. I dont have enough money to run for the house, let alone, you know, an actual kind of joe sixpack there. Like my dad, i was actually going to ask about eye popping factoid that comes from your bride by later. It is. Oh, its right. Its incredible. And i think its a great teaser for why people need to buy the book when it comes to the elected getting rich. You argue that Insider Trading is the most toxic and i agree with you lets be bipartisan. Walk through the examples of senator richard burr and former House Speaker nancy pelosi, if you could. I find it most interesting. Well, let me start with nancy pelosi and ill give you two examples that i think are pretty egregious. The first example and its really, Nancy Pelosis husband, paul, who is doing actually doing the the investing and stock market. And this is how they work this out. Exactly. And 2020, paul pelosi, he bought hundreds of thousands of dollars of Stock Options and tesla. Five weeks later, joe biden signs an executive order mandate ing that federal, local, state fleets begin transition, adding by 2027 into zero emissions vehicles. So you can imagine what happened. The stock of tesla after the president signed that executive order right it went through the roof coincidence or knowledge it curious to me and the people i talk to actually know a lot more about the market than i do say its very suspicious. Its very sketchy. Its a very swampy second example having to do with the policies is the next year, 2021. Paul pelosi exercises 10 million worth of Stock Options in microsoft this time, two weeks later, the Army Announces that theyre going to go with microsoft left for these headsets that that theyre ordering. Im im forgetting the actual word but its basically Virtual Reality augmented reality headsets. So in other words, microsoft won a bid in a sort of a contract to produce these augmented reality headsets. This could be worth billions of dollars over and again two weeks earlier, paul pelosi. Invested 10 million. And now is that is that a coincidence . The thing is, im just giving you two examples in the pelosis have gotten very, very often and in fact, theres even there were i dont know if it still exists, but there were people on social media like tic tac who were investing with the pelosi. Every time that the pelosis made an investment were always a good bet. And it seemed to pan out well for them. And what about richard burr had a very interesting time in the in the onset of the pandemic right so think back to early on when covid 19 is starting to hit and the average american doesnt know how bad it is. Two weeks to you know and two weeks ago, as donald trump said, its to all be over like in the blink of an eye. Right i think this started before we heard the phrase two weeks to flatten the curve. This would so the average american at this has no idea weve been that theres this thing in china this virus theres a couple cases or something but we dont know how bad it is is going to be in america. So richard burr, who at the time is a senator, but at the time he was chair of the intel committee. So he has access to a lot of top secret confidential meetings, information dumps, all of his stock in things like wyndham hotel, places that would be, you know, investment that would be very, very hurt by it. Lets say a Global Pandemic thats bad enough. But then he calls his brother in law and within minute of hanging up the phone, richard burr, his brother in law calls his broker and dumps his stock. Yeah. So coincidence seems a little bit suspicious. Me but heres the thing. Whether is Insider Trading or not, it doesnt really matter in the sense that the damage done to anybody paying attention is it certainly has the appearance of impropriety. It looks like the game is rigged. And again, that is what i think is i dont blame problems on this, but i think it is contributing to the erosion, trust and liberal democracy. Is there any scenario that you can see for blind trust in which we can trust members to invest but remain separated their holdings when they legislate . I dont think so. So in 2012, Congress Finally passed the stock act, which made it illegal to engage in Insider Trading. I guess until then it wasnt even illegal. You can imagine right . But since 2012, its been illegal to engage in Insider Trading and weve obviously the problem has not gone away in. Fact, perhaps its gotten but it certainly has not gone not gone away. Now, some the politicians that become embroiled in these controversies and things that look like Insider Trading say, i have a blind or my husband or my wife manages my portfolio or i have, you know, and so i believe that in order to basically in this, what we should do is ban individuals, stock trading for members of congress, their families. Now, i think you should still be allowed to own a mutual fund thats not youre not going to game the system with that. But i dont think the blind trust goes far enough in terms of quelling concerns and sort of solving like because you will still have examples of people will theyll be i mean, when russia invaded, ukraine members of congress who had invested in you name it you know weapons of war they profited from that and then they can say, well, i have a blind its still a bad look. I dont think its asking. Look, if you if you want to be in the stock market, get another job. I dont think its asking too much for members of congress who are making money from the taxpayers who are going to washington to serve their country, to say, okay, during this time when im doing this, im not going to bet the stock market. Okay . So one of the other things that one of the other ways to invest is owning property and very much enjoyed your details in the book about. The Affordable Housing crisis champions on the left, the house also being rental property owners. Yeah share a little of that right. Well so land is a kind of Insider Information on land, right. So this goes back there was a story about in the book about dennis hastert, former speaker of the house, who bought up a whole bunch land before a big highway going through. He actually had an earmark and a budget or something and so this this goes back forever. Right. And that is just thats what thats so corrupt. Yeah. Compared to just being a member of congress who owns buildings where apartments are rented condos. Right. So this story that youre talking about more is more recent and it has do with the squad. And this is in the latin chapter and. So basically what happened is covid, there pressure from progressives to put a moratorium, evictions, you know, during covid shouldnt they said you shouldnt be allowed to evict somebody from their home which, you know i can understand that. But whats interesting is that these progressives then went out of the way to say, but we have to reimburse landlords, we have to pay landlords. If the renters cant pay, we have to pay the landlords that ill get i as a kind of a center right you know carlos that makes perfect to me but it seems a little out of step with what you think of the left. And it is interesting, right, because at least two members of the squad were landlords themselves and so its impos able to know if its selfserving, but it seems odd and its a little bit, you know, hypocritical and i would say convenient that. They were pushing for landlords to get more money, not the tenants. Yeah. I mean, it is it it is. I think landlords have taken a lot of heat from the left and we do have an Affordable Housing crisis. But at the same time people who want to invest their hard money in property, then they and then they have rental income. Yeah. Its, its, its come completely fair game. Its not inside trading and and its just its just interesting but the the i urge everyone to read the house floor thing that is just really the of what we send people to congress to to represent us. What are some other ways that people can get have easy access to outside income while there and what to enrich themselves while theyre in an office . Well, one way that i think seems underwhelming when bring this up to people, they they they dont seem outraged at this one. But its book deals. I think book deals are a big way. In fact, literally, you know, as were talking just couple of weeks ago, ron desantis became a millionaire because of a book deal. Now, ron desantis, about five years ago had negative net wealth. I think was like in the red, 300,000 or Something Like that as recently as six months ago, he had a net worth of about 300,000, Something Like that. Now is a millionaire and its because of a book deal. Of course, he wouldnt have the book deal if he wasnt in politics. And so thats the way that hes kind cashing in off of his the that hes accrued from politics. What makes it even sketchier, though, is that what happens is like a lot of these members of congress will a lot of these members of congress will write a book and then instead of normal people wanting to go out and buy the book, it will be the purchase of the book. It will be a Political Committee by 5000 copies whichch will numr one, put on the bestseller list whichld could actually spark rel people buying the book. Its even possible the politician with the book fake bulk sales, not organic, that they will make more royalties or advances so there personally profiting not becausese he wrota great book that in normal people will ever read, but because Political Committees and super pacs and other groups will be buying it and maybe throwing them away or giving them away. Seright. It wouldnt sell at the rate a normal author could sell their books and the rnc in 2020 by 300,000 worth of don trump juniors book i read in the daily beast. So what is yourut solution . You have an idea about how to treat book deals. Right now members of congress, a normal member of congress, will make 174,000 a year salary, which is a lot more than the average american. And in ad