XPost: alt.politics.usa.congress, alt.politics.democrats, alt.fan.rush-limbaugh   
   XPost: talk.politics.guns, sac.politics, alt.law-enforcement   
   From: remailer@domain.invalid   
      
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   House speaker's fortune has grown $140 million since 2008, thanks in   
   part to her husband's trades   
      
      
   Pelosi scoffed at the idea of banning lawmakers from trading   
   individual stocks as recently as December, saying that she and her   
   colleagues should be able to fully participate in the free market   
   economy. After rejecting similar proposals, Pelosi is throwing her   
   weight behind legislation that would ban stock trading among members   
   of Congress and other senior government officials. House Democratic   
   leaders introduced the Combating Financial Conflicts of Interest in   
   Government Act last Tuesday but failed to bring the measure to a   
   vote before adjourning for the midterm elections.   
      
   Pelosi has been dogged by allegations that her husband, Paul Pelosi,   
   trades stocks on inside information gleaned from her position in   
   Congress. In March, Paul Pelosi exercised options to buy up to $5   
   million worth of Tesla stock as the speaker pushed for electric   
   vehicle subsidies, the Washington Free Beacon reported. And in June,   
   Paul Pelosi exercised call options to buy up to $5 million in the   
   graphics card manufacturer Nvidia just weeks before the House   
   considered a bill to provide more than $50 billion in subsidies to   
   domestic semiconductor manufacturers.   
      
   Pelosi said in November 2020 after being nominated for a fourth term   
   as speaker that she would relinquish the gavel at the end of 2022.   
   And while she announced in January that she would run for reelection   
   in 2022, there is rampant speculation that she will depart Congress   
   should Republicans retake the House in the upcoming midterm   
   elections.   
      
   Even Pelosi’s late-stage about-face is not enough to pacify her   
   progressive critics. Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D., Va.) says the   
   speaker and Democratic leadership only put the bill forward because   
   they knew it would fail.   
      
   The bill "was written to create confusion surrounding reform efforts   
   and complicate a straightforward reform priority," Spanberger said   
   in a statement on Friday, "all while creating the appearance that   
   House Leadership wanted to take action."   
      
   Pelosi’s portfolio has performed remarkably well during periods of   
   financial turmoil, her financial disclosures show. Her estimated net   
   worth skyrocketed at the onset of the Great Recession, going from   
   $31.4 million in 2008 to $101.1 million in 2010, a 220 percent   
   increase in a window where the S&P 500 decreased by 13 percent. The   
   speaker also reaped a significant return during the COVID-19   
   pandemic, seeing her estimated net worth jump from $106 million in   
   2019 to $171.4 million in 2021, an increase of 60 percent.   
      
   Government ethics watchdogs noted glaring loopholes in the Pelosi-   
   backed stock trading bill they say will create new avenues for   
   lawmakers to secretly profit from their positions in Congress.   
      
   "To say the bill is weak ... would be an understatement. The bill is   
   dangerous. It would undermine what little ethics we have in our   
   federal government," former director of the Office of Government   
   Ethics Walter Shaub said of the measure.   
      
   Shaub noted that the bill would enable lawmakers to enter into "fake   
   blind trusts." Typical blind trusts, in which a lawmaker’s assets   
   are handled by an independent manager, require trustees to divest   
   whatever officials put in the trust. But the Pelosi-backed bill   
   would exempt trustees from the divestiture requirement, Shaub said.   
      
   "The problem with this bill is it creates a completely separate   
   process and doesn't have any particular rules or requirements around   
   it," Project on Government Oversight government affairs manager   
   Dylan Hedtler-Gaudette told Insider. "You'd be able to create any   
   kind of a trust you want to, put anything you want into it, and call   
   it a blind trust, even though there wouldn't actually be any way to   
   prove that it is, in fact, a blind trust."   
      
   The precise net worth of Pelosi and all other members of Congress,   
   is unknown, as lawmakers report a range of values for all their   
   assets rather than exact dollar amounts. Pelosi’s estimated net   
   worth of $171.4 million in 2021 was calculated by taking into   
   account the ranges of all the individual assets and liabilities   
   reported in her financial disclosure statement.   
      
   Pelosi joined Congress in 1987 with a net worth of at least $2.7   
   million, according to her financial disclosure filed that year and   
      
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