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One of the older adages of law enforcement is "follow the money". If you track the money to its source, you often find the reasons behind why people do what they do. With Congress, unfortunately, it is no different than this axiom of criminal justice.

It is a truly sad commentary on our governmental system when our leaders are beholden to special interests that have an economic incentive to control the money of people who have no voices concerning their own tax funds. It has become so bad that members of Congress no longer even try to hide their ties to organized funds because they realize that we lost accountability and oversight a very long time ago. It is extremely telling when disgraced representatives who pleaded guilty for crimes while serving our government then emerge a few years later working in high profile positions for the same companies that fed their corruption while in office.

The only real solution to suppressing corruption of this nature is to institute an oversight mechanism that denies Congressional benefits to those who then take positions to benefit lobbyist concerns. Members of Congress have some of the greatest retirement benefits of any service-related industry, including lifetime health benefits. If a member of Congress intends to further enrich himself or herself by using his or her clout in government, then that member should lose all access to the benefits the people are paying to them for their original service.

One thing that gets forgotten here over and over is that members of Congress are supposed to be serving the people, not the other way around. For way too long, governmental representatives have been dipping into the cookie jar of earmarks and budgetary discretion while also benefiting from companies that have their own stockholders' interests, not the interests of the majority of citizens. When we can return to a sense of service for the sake of service, we will have regained control of our government. Until then, our government continues to be for sale to the highest bidder.

Learn more about this author, Duane Gundrum.
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