Tlaib: 'Our elected officials should not be able to profit off death'

In an op-ed today for the Detroit Free Press, Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) blasted her colleagues who voted to increase Pentagon spending while owning stock in weapons manufacturing companies.

“Our elected officials should not be able to profit off death,” she wrote. “They should not be able to use their positions of power to get rich from defense contractors while voting to pass more funding to bomb people.”

Tlaib also touted her Stop Politicians Profiting from War Act, which she introduced in the House early last year. The law would ban all members of Congress and their immediate families from owning stock in defense contractors.

If passed, the law would hamper dozens of congressional portfolios. A recent data analysis by the Quincy Institute’s Nick Cleveland Stout at Responsible Statecraft found that 37 members of Congress traded between $24 million and $113 million in defense stocks last year.

At the top of that list is Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.), who traded a staggering $22 million in defense-related stocks despite claiming that he has “no idea” where his money is invested. Gottheimer sits on the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and the National Security subcommittee in the Committee on Financial Services.

While congressional representatives are often accused of using privileged government information to guide their trades, the military industrial complex is so profitable that even mainstream investment newsletters are urging their readers to get in on the action.

“The defense sector outlook remains strong as geopolitical conflict persists,” reads a U.S. News and World Report tagline for a January article titled “7 Best Defense Stocks to Buy Now.”