As the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) digs into suspected waste, fraud, and abuse in federal spending, many on X (formerly Twitter) have been sounded off over what they see as abhorrent levels of corruption in Congress, something best exemplified, in the eyes of many of those sounding off on it, by the stock trading for which some members of Congress are known.
For reference, the stock trading scandal has risen to the fore in recent years as some of the top members of Congress, such as former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, have been exposed as either trading themselves or having spouses who trade equities and derivatives frequently. Many see that as obvious insider trading.
DOGE head Elon Musk confirmed that insider trading is a massive problem during a post-inauguration podcast interview with Joe Rogan, though he added that there are forms of corruption in the DC Swamp that he fears would get him assassinated if he were to fully expose them. Similarly, now-FBI head Kash Patel called out insider trading in a mid-2024 interview in which he discussed Congressional corruption.
Commenters and posters on X have since taken to posting about the matter and hammering what is going on in the United States Congress, particularly as more and more forms of corruption, from the expose of Sen. Cuellar’s bribery charges to Sen. Menendez’s 2024 conviction for accepting bribes, emerge.
One tweet on the matter that took off was posted by the ZeroHedge X account in mid-December 2024. In the post, which garnered over 124k views, the news outlet alleged that it appears the “real ‘payment’ in Congress” is not a salary but access to opportunities for corruption. The outlet alleged that there is no other way Congress could have avoided giving itself a pay raise for a decade and a half.
In the highly-viewed post, ZeroHedge wrote, “Why is nobody asking how Congress has not voted itself a pay raise in 15 years. Answer is simple: the real “payment” in Congress is corruption, waste, bribery, theft and embezzlement. How many multi millionaires are there in Congress on less than $200k salary?”
Commenters largely agreed. One of the top comments, for example, alleged that there is money laundering going on and hammered Congress for the debt burden it is foisting on future generations. That commenter said, “You know how I know that being a politician is the best money laundering gig ever?? Because these geriatric fools could have retired decades ago with full pay and benefits, and instead they would be willing to run over their own great-great-great-grandchildren with a road paver just to have a chance to have their corpse propped up Weekend At Bernie style in a seat of power again.”
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Other commenters left messages of agreement as well, saying things like, “Congress is a looting operation,” “It would appear that Congress is nothing more than a Money Laundering Operation,” “Congress has a greater concentration of elite stock traders than Wall Street,” and “Nothing but facts. Too much corruption for a ‘first world country.'”
Watch Elon comment on DC corruption here: