Rep. Mike Waltz introduced on Wednesday the PAINTER Act that would require the president and vice president of the United States to report the same financial disclosure information of their non-dependent children as is currently mandated for their spouse and dependent children.
The acronym of the legislations stands for Preventing Anonymous Income by Necessitating Transparency of Executive Relatives.
The Florida Republican said that “under this administration, we have witnessed shameless attempts to profit off Joe Biden’s presidency that jeopardize the integrity of the White House.
He added that “despite the Biden Administration’s silence on this issue, American citizens have a right to know who is attempting to purchase access to the White House through an ‘artist’, Hunter Biden, with no established credentials to warrant such enormous profits."
Waltz said that the “PAINTER Act will put transparency first in the White House and shed light on the actions of the adult children of the president or vice president that can be used to influence their parent’s position of power.”
Hunter Biden is scheduled to present a solo exhibition of 15 paintings at galleries in both New York and Los Angeles in a few months, with prices ranging from $75,000 for works on paper to $500,000 for those on larger canvases, the New York Post reported.
Critics have said that those who purchase art from the president's son would spend large sums of money not to buy a masterpiece, but to curry favor with the West Wing.
“The whole thing is a really bad idea,” former George W. Bush chief ethics lawyer Richard Painter told The Washington Post earlier this month.
“The initial reaction a lot of people are going to have is that he’s capitalizing on being the son of a president and wants people to give him a lot of money.”
Brian Freeman ✉
Brian Freeman, a Newsmax writer based in Israel, has more than three decades writing and editing about culture and politics for newspapers, online and television.
© 2023 Newsmax. All rights reserved.