Politicians get away with far too much, considering they are public employees. Things that are illegal in some, or all, industries are not illegal when it comes to politics.... since politicians make the laws, this may not be so surprising... but makes it even more of an outrage.
Ground rules for discussion:
There are three topics that do not belong in this thread (plenty of other threads have numerous posts on these topics. Visit those, if you wish to post about the following).
1) no discussion of Gun Ownership laws... visit another thread for that.. its been talked to death, but feel free to run in circles elsewhere.
2) no discussion of Abortion Rights.... see above.
3) no discussion of Religious Freedom... see above.
If you are still interested, let's begin....
What is not illegal, related to the running and maintenance of government, that should be illegal?
I see nothing but hypocrisy in politics.. Institutionalized dishonesty. There are two things I think should be illegal, for the betterment of society...
1) It should be a crime to knowingly spread false information in pursuit of political gain.
The common negative response to this is "being wrong should not be a crime". My response is that "being wrong" is not the issue... being INTENTIONALLY wrong is... The most blatant of lies about points of fact. As Obama said recently to Letterman, "If you watch Fox news then you are living on a different planet than someone that watches NPR".
The US cannot have a healthy government and political system if we are living on different planets.
Politicians should be legally accountable for every word that comes out of their mouths. Lying during a campaign should carry mandatory jail time and blacklisting from any government job anywhere.
If it is reasonable that a politician misspoke and did not intentionally lie, then the correction must be ASSURED to reach as many people as the original misstatement... i.e. putting a little note at the bottom of an article saying it was retracted is insufficient.. If a politician addresses the nation on a news program, then they must revisit that program at the same timeslot for the same duration making it clear what was said that was wrong, why it was wrong, why they did not know it was wrong, present their evidence that they could not have known better, present the correct information clearly and accurately, and offer an apology for their failure.
2) It should be a crime for any politician or political candidate to accept money or gifts from ANYONE.
Offering money to a politician should be illegal and treated as bribery. Using personal funds to support a campaign should also be illegal... the point being to level the playing field to a set amount of taxpayer-supported funds for each candidate, and remove the special interest groups that are manipulating the process today.
What do you think of these two thoughts?
What are some of your own examples of things that should be illegal that aren't, in the world of politics and government?
Government agencies rise up their budgets "automatically" rather than doing it by real needs.
The Fiscal year starts on October.
Any agency, lets say police department in any county of any state, finds out that the received funds have not been used fully, then, about July, the department "finds out" that it needs new police cars replacing the "older ones bought two years ago" because the new ones will have such and such new technology included. It will find out that new bullet proof vest must be upgraded from last year, they find out that some offices must be remodeled, etc.
They will desperately find the way to spend the whole funds received in that fiscal year..
The motto in the whole government agencies is to ask for a greater budget every year.
I can bet that even the White House does the same. And no, the president in charge has nothing to do with this kind of budget.
Reason of why government agencies rise up automatically their budgets every year:
By experience, "sometimes", in one year in special, the asked budget funds didn't cover emergencies that happened between Octobers, and the agency wasn't capable to supply the needs. But, this is one rare case, it doesn't happen every year.
The rising up of budget by government agencies is practically illegal, buying new computers replacing 4 year old ones, making unnecessary remodeling, painting the inside of buildings every year, hiring contractors for simple tasks which can be performed by the agency staff, and more.
This is one example: An company was hired to run 50 feet of 3/4" pipe and run a circuit for a new machine. The contract says the job to be made and completed in a "week" (5 days). Under regulations, an inspector must check the premises before and after installation.
The job itself takes one morning. However, the electrician doing the work was told to run 10 feet per day. So, the worker went to the place, installed the ten feet of pipe with two clamps on the wall, which is the length of the pipe sold everywhere, and took a 7 plus hours break. This was repeated the entire week. On the last day, beside the last ten feet of pipe, he run the wiring and installed the electric boxes and receptacles.
The budget asked by the government agency had enough funds to pay the week of work plus materials asked by the hired contractor. This is the way the asked funds in their budgets are justified.
It is not "illegal" but it should be considered as such.