The guardrails appear to be coming off longstanding practices that prevent governmental employees from participating in decisions in which they have a personal or financial interest.
President Biden’s pardon of his son’s conviction, for example, crossed that line. His decision was likely emboldened by the general climate of ignoring ethics laws in Washington DC.
His predecessor pardoned associates Paul Manafort, Stephen Bannon and George Papadopoulos and his son-in-law’s father, Charles Kushner. Those brazen moves demonstrated that there are few political consequences for bypassing normal protocols designed to prevent abuses of power.
What ethics provisions will be in place for new government cost-slasher Elon Musk, the world’s richest man and self described “First Buddy” to the incoming president?
Musk’s businesses can be affected by government decisions, such as regulation of Tesla self-driving technology, labor law enforcement, NASA contracts with Musk’s SpaceX or tariffs on Chinese EV maker BYD.
The Tesla competitor sold a record 1.1 million vehicles last quarter, more than twice as many as Tesla reported.
Cronyism, self dealing and purchased influence affect the public interest in many ways. Corruption and favoritism are paid for by the people that can’t buy favors, the rest of us. It is paid for with our tax dollars. The rich and the powerful, in effect, steal from the poor, the middle class and the non-aligned wealthy via taxes we pay. It occurs under Democrats and Republicans.
