This is as good a place as any - didn't feel it deserved a new thread ...
While just 1 percent of Americans are millionaires, 66 percent of senators are millionaires, as are 41 percent of House members.
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The evidence is clear: Americans overwhelmingly disapprove of Congress and don't believe their representatives share their priorities.
There's plenty of room for debate over whether Congress shares voters' priorities on political and policy issues. But when it comes to personal priorities, at least, voters have good reason to be skeptical of Congress. Most members of Congress simply don't share in the average American experience.
National unemployment has lingered above 8 percent for longer than 28 straight months. Congress, meanwhile, is a club that consists of 245 millionaires. Based on 2009 data, there are currently 66 in the Senate and 179 in the House (among current voting members). So while just 1 percent of Americans are millionaires, 66 percent of senators are millionaires, as are 41 percent of House members.
Even the 2010 elections, with its promises to "take our country back," produced a freshman class of senators with a median net worth of close to $4 million. The median net worth of freshman House members is more than half a million dollars, according the Center for Responsive Politics, a Washington-based, non-partisan research group that tracks the effect of money on elections and public policy.
Multiple factors contribute to this picture. It begins with campaigns that have become increasingly costly to run, making it all the more difficult for a person of modest income to run for office. National parties, looking for ways to bring down their own costs, actively recruit wealthy candidates.
Once in office, members of Congress enjoy access to connections and information they can use to increase their wealth, in ways that are unparalleled in the private sector. And once politicians leave office, their connections allow them to profit even further.
How wealthy is Congress?
The average estimated personal wealth of congressional members far exceeds the average American's wealth, according to Dave Levinthal, a spokesman for the Center for Responsive Politics. "We're talking orders of magnitude," he said -- people with assets in the high six figures in the House and even higher in the Senate.
The Center regularly goes through the time-consuming process of reviewing congressional financial disclosure reports -- which are only filed on paper -- and publishing the information in a reader-friendly online format. Their work has shown that, besides a slight dip between 2007 and 2008, Congress' personal wealth has continued to rise.
"Most Americans are being represented by people who, any way you cut it, are in the elite of the financial elite," Levinthal said.
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Also, The Top Ten wealthiest senators ...
John Kerry,
D-Mass.
Average net worth: $238,812,296
Mark Warner,
D-Va.
Average net worth: $174,385,102
Herb Kohl,
D-Wis.
Average net worth: $160,302,011
James E. Risch,
R-Idaho
Average net worth: $109,034,052
Jay Rockefeller,
D-W.Va.
Average net worth: $98,832,010
Richard Blumenthal,
D-Conn.
Average net worth: $94,870,116
Dianne Feinstein,
D-Calif.
Average net worth: $77,082,134
Frank R. Lautenberg,
D-N.J.
Average net worth: $76,886,611
Bob Corker,
R-Tenn.
Average net worth: $50,717,522
Olympia J. Snowe,
R-Maine
Average net worth: $28,612,527
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