Investigate the Pres, VP, and EVERY Elected Member of Congress

We need legislation that makes it clear that every elected president, VP and member of congress be mandatorily investigated, while they are in office and after they leave office.

Back in 2018, I wrote an article, Pass Legislation to Investigate EVERY Outgoing President. I wrote:

"No matter how good you think a president is, he should be investigated by an independent prosecutor when he leaves office. Every president should go through his entire term in office knowing his decisions will be scrutinized to determine whether he broke any laws.

No incoming president should be able to decide that his predecessor does not rate investigation. It should be mandatory and not something the president gets to decide. No declarations about looking forward, not back. EVERY president should make every decision knowing that, as the most powerful person in the world, he will be held accountable for every decision.

Once the president leaves office he will NOT be able to claim presidential privilege to protect his aides and appointees from testifying."

Now, with the situation with Manchin and Sinema, I think we need to go even further. We need to investigate every elected member of congress while in office and forever after. I strongly suspect that they are being paid huge amounts to sabotage the future of democracy. We need to make it clear that any elected member of congress will be tracked, for the rest of their lives, by the FBI and other agencies to see how they've benefitted.

We need to also pass legislation so that elected members of Congress have to be a lot more than an arm's length away from investing in stocks or other securities. That means that spouses can't do the investing for them, nor children. Yes, that's a sacrifice of sorts, but it's also a way to filter out greedy politicians who are in it for the money, and a way to discourage politicians from crossing the threshold into corrupt behaviors and practices.

This would seem to be expensive, with close to 535 politicians to track. But I think a budget of a billion a year to prevent corruption on the scale it is happening now with Manchin and Sinema is a bargain. I believe a lot of the investigation could use artificial intelligence to flag suspicious behaviors and financial finagling by the elected officials and their families and operations. The budget should be higher, at least $10 million each, per year for the President, Vice President and leaders of the House and Senate . And every two years, as new candidates are elected, that cost will grow.

The legislation would include steep penalties for the elected officials AND for any people, companies or organizations attempting to influence or corrupt. This should be a bi-partisan no-brainer. Of course, with Nancy Pelosi speciously suggesting that legislation to stop members of congress from profiting from investing is unnecessary because members of Congress can be trusted, it's clear that she is a part of the problem.

Also, the investigation should not just be handed over to existing agencies like the FBI or DOJ. It should also include funding to be done by independent, citizen-run organizations and even individuals, people like Ralph Nader and even journalistic organizations, like The Intercept on the left and (trying not to gag saying it, but) Project Veritas on the right. These investigations should put the fear of God into politicians.

This legislation should be run up as a single item, not tied in with other bills. Any legislator who votes against it should be primaried.