Congressional slush fund highlights need to drain the swamp

In 1995, President Bill Clinton signed into law a bill that established the Office of Compliance. The office administers a “slush fund” that uses public money to settle workplace disputes on Capitol Hill, including sexual harassment complaints by staff workers against members of the Congress (Sunday Review-Journal editorial).

From 1997 through 2014, the office paid out $17 million of taxpayer money on behalf of congressional workers. Until this past month, information about that “slush fund” and the use of public funds to pay off sexual harassment claims against elected members of Congress was not public.

It can be assumed that nearly every member of Congress knew about that fund but did nothing to end its dubious function to protect unethical senators and representatives. I can think of no better reason than that to drain the entire congressional swamp of every corrupt and unethical member of Congress that has had more than one term in office.

I am quite sure that if Thomas Jefferson and our other Founding Fathers were with us today, there would not be the smell of tea in Boston Harbor. Instead, we would have the smell of burnt powder over the Potomac. As Jefferson asserted, “The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure.”