Rep. Rob Bresnahan

When Rep. Rob Bresnahan (R-Pa.) ran for Congress last year, he "hated the idea of lawmakers making money by trading individual stocks in elected office and said he wanted to ban the practice," according to Wall Street Journal reporter Katy Stech Ferek's Wednesday article.

But then he won his race.

“Now a congressman representing northeastern Pennsylvania, Bresnahan is one of the most active traders in Congress and is drawing political heat for some of the transactions,” Ferek wrote.

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He claims his transactions are handled by an adviser who doesn’t consult him on trades, and the WSJ reports he recently suggested he “wouldn’t follow through on his plan to put his investment portfolio in a blind trust as an ethical firewall.” He also hasn’t signed on to a leading House effort to restrict stock trading, and has instead introduced his own bill that ethics advocates and colleagues criticize as “weak.”

“When asked during a Scranton-area radio interview if he planned to tell his adviser to stop trading stocks to avoid backlash, Bresnahan replied: “And then do what with it? Just leave it all in accounts and just leave it there and lose money and go broke?”

Ferek reports many lawmakers rail against stock trading on principle, “only to back off later when faced with the practical impacts.” In fact, there are trading companies that buy and sell based upon the reliability of U.S. politicians’ market transactions.

Naturally, passage of actual bans remains uncertain after a history of failed bills.

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“This idea that we’re going to attack people because they make money is wrong,” said Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.), one of Congress’s wealthiest members with an estimated 2018 net worth in excess of $250 million. “We should cherish all of our different backgrounds.”

Bresnahan, meanwhile, sold up to $50,000 in Alibaba stock on March 4 — the same day Trump doubled the tariff on Chinese imports. In fact, there are trading companies that buy and sell based upon the reliability of U.S. politicians’ market transactions.

Exceptions to trading include Rep. Greg Landsman (D-Ohio), who sold off his last individually owned stock in May, after moving his family’s investments into mutual funds, according to the WSJ. The switch meant he had to pay more than $115,000 in capital-gains taxes.

“It’s a lot of money, but we have to rebuild trust,” Landsman said.

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Since taking office in January, the WSJ reports Bresnahan has made more than 600 individual stock trades as of Aug. 21. On Tuesday, Scranton’s Democratic Mayor Paige Cognetti announced plans to challenge him and cited Bresnahan stock trades as a reason.

Read the Wall Street Journal's report at this link.