There is no law against members of Congress making personal investments with inside information gleaned from their powerful positions, but conservative publisher Andrew Breitbart says Alabama Rep. Spencer Bachus, the Republican chairman of House Financial Services, should step down from his seat after it was revealed that he made money betting against the market before the financial meltdown in 2008.
There’s new buzz on this subject after the book, “Throw Them All Out,” by Peter Schweizer, was featured Sunday night on CBS’ “60 Minutes.”
The book includes passages about how Bachus made money in 2008 by making trades against the market after attending secretive closed-door meetings about the impending financial meltdown with Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke.
While what Bachus did is not illegal, Breitbart said in the interview that it’s “egregious” and “fundamentally unethical.”
“I am calling for Spencer Bachus to step down,” Breitbart said in a radio interview. “Not from being the head of the House Finance Committee, I think he should be in Joe Paterno-ville. He should be an exile in Alabama-ville.”
On “60 Minutes,” reporter Steve Kroft said Bachus’s office responded to the charges by saying he never trades on non-public information.
Speaking broadly about the many members of Congress who have engaged in trading using insider information, Breitbart said he wants “to see these people taken down. And by down, I want them to suffer Anthony Weiner’s fate — I want them to step down.”