POLITICO.com – Two-hundred-and-thirty-seven members of Congress are millionaires. That’s 44 percent of the body – compared to about 1 percent of Americans overall.
CRP says California Republican Rep. Darrell Issa is the richest lawmaker on Capitol Hill, with a net worth estimated at about $251 million. Next in line: Rep. Jane Harman (D-Calif.), worth about $244.7 million; Sen. Herb Kohl (D-Wis.), worth about $214.5 million; Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), worth about $209.7 million; and Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), worth about $208.8 million.
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And this is somehow a shock?
They don’t call them plutocrats for nothing.
Cursor_
…for the people by the people! Hah!
The real question should be the change in net worth while in office. These men and women were rich so they could afford to run and get the election.
Kohl had a line of department stores. Kerry and McCain married wealth. Murray had a software business. What did the others do?
I don’t believe those numbers. Kohl also owns the Milwaukee Bucks, and is worth much more than that.
Any congress person in office more than 5 years who is not a millionaire is not kissing and kicking enough ass.
A good example is Hillary and they way she turned that 5000 investment into 250K in a few months. Looks suspicious. I’m happy a close review by government authorities gave her a clean bill of health on that investment.
Makes me wonder why these congress people don’t work at investing full time?
I thought all politicians were millionaires? How else are they able to pay for getting into office in the first place? Hell you have to pay several grand to whatever political party you want to associate yourself with before they even consider you.
…and here I thought Kerry had to sell his house in Italy in 2004, to run for President, because he was broke.
Amazingly enough the top ones are all Democrats. That can’t be right. Democrats believe in giving money away to help the poor and downtrodden, oh wait, they only believe in giving away our money. Worthless pieces of shit.
I gave more money to charity last year than our worthless piece of shit vice president did as a percentage of income.
#8 ironic to think that a conservative by DEFINITION isn’t as “giving” and charitable as a liberal democrat.
But isn’t the reason the top ones listed are Democrats simply because they are a majority now? OH wait are they still a majority after this past election? My local area didn’t have an election since I don’t live in city limits to vote on anything, so I almost but forgot there was an election last week.
So we can balance the budget simply by getting our congressmen to pay taxes?
#5, Bobbo, it was $1000 into a $100,000 investment.
Now the rest of Congress does it with VIP programs for home loans, or special access to IPOs. I think commodities trading may have changed since Hillary and Trading Places. Hillary made her money because the broker decided whose trades got placed after the fact. Or if you believe Hillary, she read about trading in the Wall Street Journal.
Depending on what is included in the calculation, I don’t think that being a millionaire is unusual. On the Conn. shoreline where I live, you can’t find a house for less than about $350 K. If you are in your 50s and have been smart with 401Ks and IRAs, $500 K isn’t unusual. These factors alone put the 1 million goal in reach of many people. Further, if you calculate the value of your pension and SS, it becomes easy to call yourself a millionaire.
As mentioned the story would be the number that became acheived wealth after they became Congresscritters. The ones that did need to be investigated.
#11–Mike==you sure the amount didn’t increase what with compound interest????
Joke!!–thanks for the correction.
“I gave more money to charity last year than our worthless piece of shit vice president did as a percentage of income.”
Suddenly the percentage of income argument works for a neocon.
They get their salary for life whether they stay in congress or not, eh? What with federal spending and the national debt being so high, I suppose the honorable thing for them to do is to contribute a bunch of their own money to the righteous cause.
@Mr. Diesel @FRAGaLOT,
When did Darrel Issa (#1 on the list) become a Democrat?!? The article itself states he is a Republican.
@Cursor_, spot on with the plutocrats… It appears that we have somehow become a combination of a plutocracy and a fascist state (from the traditional definition of fascism, not the new twisted version).
Whether they had money or made the money in office is irrelevant, both are a damn shame.
One shows how broken our political system is that only the rich can afford to “represent” us.
The other shows how corrupt the system can be.
One is criminal and one is not, both are shameful for a government by and for the people.
Meaningless. Most are college educated as well – also far from mainstream.
The important thing is they :
(1) represent ALL of the the people they are there to represent
(2) Have the backbone to do something productive
(3) Are not swayed by special interest like the Taliban,
They go to Washington to do good and they do very well indeed!
#19, represent ALL of the the people they are there to represent
And how do they do that when there are two sides to a problem?
# 17 ethanol said, on November 10th, 2009 at 7:19 am
@Mr. Diesel @FRAGaLOT,
When did Darrel Issa (#1 on the list) become a Democrat?!? The article itself states he is a Republican.
Holy cow! I stand corrected. Speed reading strikes again.
Wow, what a surprise… people that are successful enough to succeed in reaching higher office also are successful in their finances.
I have a million dollars.. big deal.. 30 years at $50,000 / year, invested smartly will put you in that club.
If someone has not amassed a million dollars in net worth, just through regular investments and salary, by the time they reach congress they probably shouldn’t be elected to office, because they are probably failures in life overall. I would hope that they would have at least $10 million to their name by the time they get elected… and of course they should be able to explain it.
Bobbo, compound interest would be a separate investment. The gain here was in commodities trading, and was reported as 100,000 out of 1,000, in 10 months.
http://dumptheincumbent.com How about posting a list of these greedy fat cat swine, so I’ll know who NOT to vote for. Our founding fathers are no doubt spinning in their graves!
http://opensecrets.org/pfds/overview.php?type=W&year=2008
this is the list and the site.
A person that has nothing to loose, doesnt consider those that have EVERYTHING to loose.
You voted them into OFFICE.
very little personal history, just a picture in a manual.
the link I posted, also shows the POOREST..
Golly. Look at all those (D)s after their names.
Of course they represent the little guy.
.
@#25 The founding fathers were all wealthy as well. Thousand acre plantations with slaves didn’t come cheap, even back in 1776.
I find it comical that the people debating Health Care reform in Washington have NEVER gone without good health care. They’re all rich, the one that aren’t on the list are just hiding it better. Money = power, that is why the corporations have all the power in the United States. We are run by the dollar and for the dollar, people be damned. This is why a decent, single payer healthcare system will never come to the United States. The insurance companies are simply too wealthy for average Americans to compete against.
First off, how is this supposed to be a surprise? The government is run by wealthy elites that look out for the interests of other wealthy elites. Even a retard should be able to figure this one out. Anyone thinking that government is looking out for the interests of the public is LESS than a retard.
Secondly, being a millionaire in today’s America means that you are in a group that is slowly becoming the middle class.