Congress does it again....

Polls show public approval of Congress at an all-time low, and a recent 60 Minutes piece that pointed out that members of Congress are exempt from insider-trading rules, and some are apparently profiting handsomely from that exemption, doesn't help. So the Senate promptly passed a bill (finally) outlawing insider trading by members of Congress, but House Republicans are stalling about passing the same bill, hoping, I suppose, to stall until the public forgets about it entirely.

This is by no means the only example of Congress exempting itself from rules it imposes on everyone else. I noted last year that the Obamacare legislation contained language, tucked deep into the 2000+ pages of the bill, that exempted some key Democratic members of Congress and the their staffs from the bill.

It pretty clear we need a substantial overhaul of Congress, but it is by no means clear what mechanism can drive that overhaul. Congress certainly doesn't seem inclined to do it themselves.