Speaking primarily in the context of being up to your ears in debt, but because it creates a conflict of interest. Such a person is a lot more susceptible to bribes as a means to get out of their predicament, because they can't afford to tell someone waving a bag of money in front of them to piss off.

Debt is also something foreign intelligence looks for when attempting to recruit spies.

A politician is just another mafia in my eyes. There have been mafias that are not worse than politicians in history. Literally.

I mean... That's not a very strong or interesting statement to make. I'm pretty sure there are a lot of mafias that did less bad than <insert your least favourite dictator here>.