George Santos, a republican New York representative, has been charged with conspiracy, wire fraud, false statements, falsification of records, aggravated identity theft, and credit card fraud. However, he is still in office and voting on laws that will affect people for years. This is absurd, a person on bail awaiting to be charged should not hold power over citizens. 

     An article by the United States Attorney Office reports that. George Santos has been charged with over 23 different issues including “wire fraud, money laundering or even materially false statements to the Federal Election Commission (FEC).” The most surprising thing was that in 2010, he confessed to tax fraud in Brazil in 2008, according to House.gov, but still was able to be elected in 2022 despite those charges. 

      A man with 23 counts of different charges anywhere else would (most likey) be shunned from their community and removed of all power, but not in this case. Instead, Santos is actually going to be running to be re-elected into the House of Representatives. Why is this allowed?

     This is painting the US government in a terrible light, and rightfully so. The country lets corrupt and criminal people run our government. These people are swayed by money and power, they want control and to feel in charge. It feels as if the Government doesn’t work as it should, in a fair and honest manner.. If you pay enough money to the right people you can have any position of power, that is what’s wrong with our government.

     Mrs. Melissa Winter, the school’s AP psych and American government teacher, feels that “having a person who is supposed to be a representative as a criminal is lowering the standards down to just any common person.” If anyone can make it into office, no matter the background, what is stopping the worst of the worst from deciding laws and guidelines for the peoples of the United States? Winter adds that corruption has “no place in the US government. However, [she knows] it still happens.” She continues, “you can never know if they’re being paid by someone, or working behind the backs of  people to make certain laws that only benefit a certain group of people.” 

     Santos survived a “bipartisan effort to expel him from the House of Representatives on Wednesday,” according to NBC News. You also need to take into account the fact that he has not been  convicted of these charges. However, we must also  question who holds the power in the House of Representatives: Republicans. 

     Winter believes “a lot of people a mistrusting the government and losing trust in them, and that’s the reality; the corruptness connecting to the power that the government holds.”

      If a man with over 23 different accusations of crimes can still hold power in the U.S., where do we draw the line?