GOP lawmaker whines over insider trading ban: 'It's not easy' to make money in Congress
Rep. Roger Wilson (R-TX) expressed opposition to a congressional stock trading ban proposed by MAGA Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL), noting that it was "not easy" to live on his salary as a lawmaker.
During a Wednesday interview on Fox Business, a panelist pointed out that Luna was trying to force a vote on a bill that could ban members of Congress from trading individual stocks.
"Will you be signing the petition?" the panelist asked Wilson.
"No, that's interesting," the Republican lawmaker replied. "I mean, I think we've got to be careful that we don't limit Congress people to where they can do nothing. Of course, I know there's a lot of people that have abused insider trading and that sort of thing."
"But I think we need to take a look at it because right now, from a financial standpoint, it's not easy being up in Congress," he continued. "And I think that we can't limit the ability for people to do business and operate their lives. So I want to take a look at that, but I want to be careful we don't squeeze it too hard to where nobody wants to come up here."
The Fox Business panelist pressed: "Isn't it fair to say that Congress folks see information before the rest of us do, and using that information like [Nancy] Pelosi has to trade is a problem for everybody?"
"Well, when you use it wrongly, there's no question about insider trading," Wilson insisted. "I mean, it used to be you go to jail for insider trading. I like to believe that people will do it right."
"In many cases, we see things before they happen, but in some cases we don't," he added.