President Biden told Americans to expect an era of unity and normality after four years of disruption. What they got was a chief executive unable to cope with the overlapping crises of the coronavirus pandemic, consumer price inflation, illegal immigration, crime and a botched withdrawal from Afghanistan.
Yet there is one thing that Biden has restored to good working order: the DC gravy train. In Biden’s Washington, well-connected liberal Democrats in the influence industry have no problem enriching themselves. The world is a mess but the Swamp is as fetid as ever.
Not long after taking office, Biden issued an executive order restoring and strengthening the government ethics provisions that had been in force under President Obama. He banned gifts from lobbyists. He prohibited political appointees from working on issues related to their previous employment. He established safeguards to prevent registered foreign agents from entering his administration. And he restricted officials from lobbying and communicating with their former agencies for two years after they leave government. Walter Shaub, a former ethics watchdog under President Obama who became a prominent critic of President Trump, told NPR, ‘I’d say it’s a very good executive order.’
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But Shaub wasn’t complimentary for long. In June, the Washington Post reported that at least five children of senior officials had been appointed to government jobs. The nepotism was more than unseemly. It was hypocritical. ‘While it may not be as bad as appointing your son or daughter to a top government post as Trump did with Jared and Ivanka, it is still bad,’ Shaub told the Post. Jen Psaki, the White House press secretary, didn’t share his concern. ‘We have the highest ethical standards of any administration in history,’ she said.
The administration has a funny way of showing it. Lachlan Markay of Axios, for example, reports that at least 16 Biden-appointed officials received waivers exempting them from various ethics rules. Moreover, the highest levels of Biden’s government are staffed with people who have made careers in leveraging public-sector connections for private-sector paydays.
Secretary of state Antony Blinken co-founded a ‘strategic advisory’ firm, WestExec Advisors-- excerpt, rest at link above --
"I wish it need not have happened in my time," said Frodo.
"So do I," said Gandalf, "and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us."
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