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Meet America's 25 Richest Politicians
Per the just released OpenSecrets list of top 25 wealthiest politicians in America, there are 12 republicans and 12 democrats (and Hillary, whatever she is). While we applaud the diversity among the country's richest "representatives", we can't help but wonder if these people actually "represent" the common man, or the man (such as themselves) having a minimal average net worth of $28 million...
Some further amusing commentary from Before Its News:
I believe it was Emma Goldman who said, "Voting is the opium of the masses." Pitting us regular folk against each other over petty ideologies is how the elite in Congress perpetuate the illusion that we have real choice between the Democrats and the Republicans. It was true in Emma Goldman's time; it's true in our time.
Comedian Chris Rock, when asked during the last presidential election if he was supporting Barack Obama because he is black, replied that he was supporting Obama because he was the only "one-millionaire" running for office. The other candidates were all multi-millionaires. While Obama probably appears further down the list, Rock's point is well-made.The best Americans can do now is vote for the poorest millionaire.
The Center for Responsive Politics has posted the estimated minimum and maximum possible net worth of every single member of Congress and the Administration (from 2008 data) at their website OpenSecrets.org. Here are the top 25. If you want to be shocked, look only at the "Minimum Net Worth" column. If you want to be appalled, look at the "Maximum Net Worth" column.
Full list of America's finest. The fact that Nancy Pelosi' minimum net worth has been disclosed at ($7) Million does not really surprise us: all that facial self-improvement does not come cheap.
| Rank | Name | Minimum Net Worth | Average | Maximum Net Worth |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Darrell Issa (R-Calif) | $156,050,022 | $303,575,011 | $451,100,000 |
| 2 | Jane Harman (D-Calif) | $151,480,522 | $293,454,761 | $435,429,001 |
| 3 | John Kerry (D-Mass) | $182,755,534 | $238,812,296 | $294,869,059 |
| 4 | Mark Warner (D-Va) | $65,692,210 | $174,385,102 | $283,077,995 |
| 5 | Jared Polis (D-Colo) | $36,694,140 | $160,909,068 | $285,123,996 |
| 6 | Herb Kohl (D-Wis) | $89,358,027 | $160,302,011 | $231,245,995 |
| 7 | Vernon Buchanan (R-Fla) | $-69,434,661 | $148,373,160 | $366,180,982 |
| 8 | Michael McCaul (R-Texas) | $73,685,086 | $137,611,043 | $201,537,000 |
| 9 | Jay Rockefeller (D-WVa) | $61,446,018 | $98,832,010 | $136,218,002 |
| 10 | Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif) | $46,055,250 | $77,082,134 | $108,109,018 |
| 11 | Frank R. Lautenberg (D-NJ) | $49,083,204 | $76,886,611 | $104,690,018 |
| 12 | Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif) | $-7,356,915 | $58,436,537 | $124,229,990 |
| 13 | Alan Mark Grayson (D-Fla) | $31,411,044 | $54,966,522 | $78,522,000 |
| 14 | James E. Risch (R-Idaho) | $19,468,057 | $54,517,026 | $89,565,995 |
| 15 | Gary Miller (R-Calif) | $19,365,053 | $51,833,526 | $84,302,000 |
| 16 | Bob Corker (R-Tenn) | $9,778,047 | $50,717,522 | $91,656,998 |
| 17 | Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-NJ) | $19,898,179 | $43,797,589 | $67,697,000 |
| 18 | Nita M. Lowey (D-NY) | $14,900,036 | $39,012,518 | $63,125,000 |
| 19 | Kenny Ewell Marchant (R-Texas) | $13,303,385 | $38,204,868 | $63,106,351 |
| 20 | Brian P. Bilbray (R-Calif) | $25,143,635 | $37,819,629 | $50,495,623 |
| 21 | Harry Teague (D-NM) | $21,119,041 | $37,102,019 | $53,084,997 |
| 22 | Denny Rehberg (R-Mont) | $6,598,014 | $31,421,505 | $56,244,997 |
| 23 | Hillary Clinton | $10,727,014 | $31,243,506 | $51,759,999 |
| 24 | Olympia J. Snowe (R-Maine) | $12,556,055 | $28,612,527 | $44,669,000 |
| 25 | Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn) | $11,342,046 | $28,116,022 | $44,889,998 |
h/t Robert
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Being the best at what?
You gotta love arguments that seek to prove that drug cartels are the best people.
This is a financial blog, and noone noticed that there is a minus in front of the Pelosi number?
Yes, but thought that was the IQ column there for a minute.
Plastic Surgeons don't work for free!
Never mind their party affiliation....the real trend here is how many of them are making $$$ off of the defense industry (especially #1 and #2).
Hey! Don't point out the elephant in the room!
...or the donkey!
They should limit campaign financing to an unlimited Greyhound bus ticket and a megaphone, and make these people actually have something to say.
HooHOO, BOTH my Senators made the list! We're number one, we're . . . wait . . . no . . .
I'll see your Senators and raise you a Misrepresentative and a crooked sheriff.
I notice that the composers of this list had to dip way down to get enough republicans to even out the total.
The overt bias is in the composition. Lets take a different list, because to me someone worth around ten million is equal to what most local firemen here are worth.
Let's take a list of the 100 millionaires. Here the totals are:
Republicans 3
Democrats 9
Conclusion as we all suspected: The super rich in congress just like Wall Street are largely democrats. Look how far down Bush had to go to find a republican in Goldman Sachs for secretary of Treasury: Paulson.
It's as I've always said to my democrat friends - I'd be one but I'm just not rich enough to be a democrat, though I strive to be some day.
Super rich businessmen are democrats? WTF?
Where do you people come up with such contradictory BS?
Party hacks! Go blow one another and let the rest of us deal with reality, OK?
This list is sick. These people do not have anyone's interest but their own.
BTW, most rules do not apply to members of Congress. One is, they can buy / sell stock via insider info, otherwise illegal for everyone else. This is a fact. What a fucked up country we have.
Those who don't like dems, think dems are all wealthy. Totally wrong.
"These people do not have anyone's interest but their own."
And YOUR interest is in what, exactly?
I mean, this isn't something that captalism is based on, self-interest? And, what about the US and life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness?
It's about POWER! Everyone should have their OWN power, to address their OWN interests!
Nothing wrong with self interest ... problem becomes 'Conflict of Interest' ... If you are rich when you become a Congress Person you will still be rich when you get done ... Issa is a good example of one who was rich then wanted to do something for the Nation .. More power to him.
But, make all office holders place all money in a truly blind trust ... we might not get so many crooks.
Anyone know how that idiot Alan Grayson made his money?
i know he has been a peter schiff follower and client since 2000. So that figure doesn't include his physical gold. I don't know anything before that on what he did
Grayson made his money on his own, as a lawyer specializing in class action lawsuits. Representing the little guy.
Grayson made his money in the Internet/software space I believe.
He did provide a few good moments while questioning Benny and the Printing Jets.
"Grayson made his money in the Internet/software space I believe."
Well, according to the right-wingers here that's not possible! I mean, ONLY non-democrats can make money from (supposed legitimate) business!
</sarcasm>
Grayson: Denninger in drag?
How many congressman were totally short the stock market in 2008. All I know it was alot.
And you now this how? Reference?
A wise choice ... what's the matter with that ... I was short then too.
Tyler Durden,
great idea, but wrong list(s).
Much more information in three lists:
- Congressweeners net worth before holding any office
(don't care if they made it in the dreaded private sector)
- Congressweeners change while holding office
(amazing what the office-holder's multiplier on salary is...)
- Congressweeners change after leaving office
(somewhat less surprising what the multiplier is after leaving office is for the big paycheck)
And yes, Susan Collins and Olympia Snow are Congressweeners.
Exact comments I was about to make ... Clinton 51,000,000 ... must be Bill's speaking engagements
Congress critters get full retirement and medical after 5 years in office.
Think about that when they say it's necessary to cut Social Security.
Also remember that back in the Reagan years there was supposely a S.S. fix made whereas a significant increase of payroll taxes was to put S.S. on sound footing.
A LIE.
The government spent the money as soon as it came in.
And it turned around and gave the S.S. fund a bogus IOU.
A 'special' bond, that couldn't be redeemed by anyone one else other than the Federal
Government. Hell, even giving the S.S. fund Treasuries would place the S.S. fund in the position of selling those (rapidly becoming worthless bonds) to a greater sucker.
But that option doesn't exist. No, the Federal government made sure the
S.S. fund was the 'sucker' of last resort. For it got paid in these retarded
bonds that were WORTHLESS on the open market.
There is no money in the Social Security Trust Fund.
If S.S. payroll taxes don't cover the expenses then the S.S. Fund is just another item that the Feds have to borrow (or have Ben print up).
Think about that and digest it.
Back in the '80s these shits went before the country and said we need more $$$ to
save Social Security. And then they continued to piss it away. And they continued to lie to the American public about the finances of Social Security.
They do even today.
If YOUR CONGRESSPERSON does anything other under direct questioning than acknowledge that the Feds have spent the S.S. Trust Fund then they are a lying sack of S***.
Look at Market move fromm 1980; SP from 100 to 1280 - think how solid the SS Trust Fund would be if they got a return on our money ... mine alone would be upwards of 2 million or an annuity of 10 times what my monthly is SS payments will be will be at 65 and includes my wife also ... Priceless
What do people think "returns" mean? It's all, in essence, from intrest. Yeah, some might be from "profits," but those profits, if you peak behind the scenes, are really no more than short-term pillaging: exhausting future generations' resources for today.
Do people really believe that we can all sit back and collect profits? I'm sure that there will be the lame attempts to say that if it weren't for the "leeches" that everything would be wonderful; but, really? Again if everyone were working HARD, could EVERYONE be rich, collect interest from everyone else?
People have been led to believe the impossible, and this applies to people all over the political spectrum (who are generally just pawns of their false idols).
Long ago I stopped thinking interms of "retirement," of "collecting" something from things I'd done in the past (again, those working today are paying for those who have "retired"). You earn as you go, up until you drop dead. That's how it works for the overwhelming majority of humanity, today as well as throughout all of human history.
The "Trust" fund was compromised in the late 60s in an effort to hide the US's bankruptcy from its wars in Southeast Asia (fighting "Communism"). From that point on SS was just another pass-through device... funding, therefore, really hasn't existed since then. Amazing what we've been programmed to believe, yes?
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/18/business/global/18baer.html?_r=1&partn...
The pot's starting to heat up... and imagine, the list of the crooked also appears to involve non-political people!
This was inevitable, as citizens start to pull out the pitch forks some will be sacrificed in order to preserve the game. And most of us will fall right into their hands by begging for things to be "fixed" (thereby giving our approval of continuing the system).
Alan Grayson? Wasn't he voted out last election? And I don't understand why the Rockefeller guy is #9, thought he would be higher.
Partisans go the fuck home already. It's incredibly depressing to see folks struggling to pin some kind of Dem/Rep nonsense onto a post like this.
With all respect to Brother Hicks...
"I prefer the puppet on the right."
"The puppet on the left is more to my liking."
Both puppets are being held by the same fucking guy.
(Wake up and attend that guy's next cocktail party. Sure, he'll throw you out, but at least you got a glimpse and maybe even a little weenie on a stick.)
Now the boys in irak know what they are dying for.
The price to sell-out a nation comes pretty cheaply.
They certainly understand The Middle Class, don't they?!
They certainly understand The Middle Class, don't they?!