The people who oversee the largest budget in the world, who are in charge of an entity ultimately responsible for the largest number of employees in the U.S., and who are put in charge specifically to represent constituents somehow have no broad fiduciary duty — Congress.
In most large businesses, and certainly every publicly traded one, a board of directors is put in place to represent that business’s stakeholders. This is referred to as a fiduciary duty, which in layman’s terms, is a legal obligation to act in the best interests of those you represent. It also comes with consequences, because as a fiduciary, you can be sued for putting your interests ahead of those you represent or for negligence or bad judgment.
Fiduciary relationships come into place not only in companies, but for certain financial advisory relationships and trustees as well. The fiduciary relationship is a legal one, which means those in charge must legally act honestly and with care, avoid conflicts of interest and be trustworthy to the parties they represent.
EX-HOUSE DEM WHO RIPPED CONGRESSIONAL STOCK TRADING BAN AS ‘BULLS—‘ CHANGES HER TUNE IN COMEBACK BID
Somehow, Congress has managed to avoid this. Sure, they take a “moral” oath and have some fairly weak, in my opinion, disclosure and ethics rules. But the people who are in charge of making laws and passing budgets (if you can call regular and overwhelming overspending a “budget”) have no true legal, fiduciary role.
We have seen and paid the price for this. The national debt exceeds $40 trillion. Congress spends around $7 trillion a year, $2 trillion more than it takes in. They have been at the center of driving massive inflation for the American people. We, as a country, are now paying more for the interest on our debt than we are for the defense of our country, the latter being one legitimate thing government should be doing.
We have seen Congress write and pass laws that tip the scales in favor of certain groups at the expense of others. We have seen them enrich themselves through stock trading (despite the STOCK Act of 2012).
We have seen calls for term limits, an issue which the majority of Americans favor, be ignored, sometimes even leaving members of Congress with clearly diminished capacity in their roles.
As I have written about previously, I am often asked if the national debt crisis is solvable. And the answer comes always in two parts: we do have the tools to do so, but we do not have the political structure to do so.
If Congress has no obligation to do what is in our best interest instead of theirs, if we cannot hold them accountable for misdeeds, and if our only real recourse is threatening to vote them out of office, nothing is going to change.
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It is truly not right that those who act in the capacity of others on serious legal and financial matters in the private sector have a fiduciary obligation to those they represent, yet the behemoth that our government has become bears no such obligation, including from those who represent the American people.
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When individuals bear no requirement to act in the best interests of those they represent, and they are given access to great power and other people’s money, of course, we are going to end up with massive debt and a dysfunctional country.
We should require care, trust and duty from our representatives. And it should be a legal obligation, not a theoretical one.
