Sen. Mark Kelly sponsors a bill to end (for real this time) insider trading by Congress

One of the reasons people chuckle when Washington politicians describe their work as “public service” is that — unlike people with real public service jobs like, say, the military — politicians tend to leave Congress way, way richer than when they entered.

And it’s not just the salary or the fabulous expense accounts. Members of Congress have for generations been privy to inside information on stocks.

It’s like knowing which of the shells hides the pea.

Like knowing which is the red queen, the money card, in Three-Card Monte.

Congress can use inside info to get rich

Over the years, Congress has proposed and even passed laws that supposedly were designed to prevent its members from using their information access to get rich. It has never worked.

Now, Democratic Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly and Georgia Sen. Jon Ossoff are reintroducing (yes, they’ve tried before) legislation that, simply, would ban members of Congress from buying or selling stocks while in office.

The bill would require Washington politicians to do what Kelly and Ossoff already have done, which is put their stock portfolios in blind trusts.

It shouldn’t be necessary to pass a law to protect the public from the people we elect to protect the public.

But … it is.

Kelly wants to 'prevent corrupt ... trading'

News operations like The New York Times have documented how members of Congress invest in companies that figure into their congressional work.

It’s been noted as well that even when the markets tank, members of Congress do very well.

In a statement Kelly said, “Elected officials don’t just make policy, they also have access to valuable information that shapes different industries and the entire economy. Members of Congress should be focused on representing their constituents, not their stock portfolios. I’m reintroducing this legislation with Sen. Ossoff to prevent corrupt insider trading and make Washington work better for Arizonans.”

Sen. Kelly: Is wasting dismay on Tommy Tuberville

The Kelly and Ossoff bill is backed almost exclusively by Democrats, even though an overwhelming number of Americans, roughly 86%, Republicans and Democrats, believe Congress should be banned from stock trading.

You’d think it would be an easy proposal to pass. But Congress is a well-crafted con game.

We see this sort of misdirection all the time

There is a book called “Sleights of Mind: What the Neuroscience of Magic Reveals about Our Everyday Deceptions,” that explains things.

The authors spent years studying magicians and con artists, writing in part that “magic tricks work because humans have a hard-wired process of attention and awareness that is hackable.”

Essentially, magicians and con artists (and politicians) manipulate our powers of perception. And the key, according to the authors, is misdirection.

That can be tricky when a crook is trying to con a person out of a few bucks on a street corner. But in Washington, D.C., it’s a piece of cake.

Let’s say, for example, that you are part of the Republican majority in the House, and you don’t want to pass a law to stop you from getting rich off stock trading.

All you need to do is draw the attention of potentially outraged voters to something else, something bright and shiny and completely distracting.

Like, for instance, an asinine, half-baked impeachment inquiry.

Reach Montini at ed.montini@arizonarepublic.com.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Sen. Mark Kelly tries (again) to end Congress' insider trading