Islam Times - Congress Keeps Getting Richer While Their Constituents Get Poorer

Islam Times - While most of the U.S. struggles to make ends meet and put a roof over their heads, nearly half of Congress have become millionaires ...

U.S. “lawmakers” are reportedly likely to be multimillionaires, and are on average nine time richer than the U.S. public they allegedly serve and the revolving door between "lawmakers" and lobbyists (link: http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2012/01/12-3) exacerbates America's growing economic disparity between Congress and their constituents.

Congress keeps getting richer at our expense. A study by the Center of Responsive Politics revealed that the median net worth of a member of Congress is $913,000 and rising, compared to $100,000 and falling for their constituents. In reality, many of our corrupted Congress critters make up the 1 percent that Occupy Wall Street (OWS) has been rallying against.

Darrell Issa, a Republican Representative from California, is among the richest. Part of his vast fortune has been made pushing the policies – and fraudulent agendas of the Koch Brothers and friends for example -- of the rich corporations he serves. Issa, whose worth last year was $195 to $700 million, chairs the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, which makes it extremely easy for him to get rich while screwing the U.S. public. Also among the most-wealthy Congressmen were Michael McCaul, John Kerry, Mark Warner and Herb Kohl.

Rep. Ed Pastor (D-Arizona) was worth $100,000 when he took office. Today he too belongs to the Capitol Hill millionaires club. Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-California), whose net worth in 2010 was more than $101 million, made millions on insider-trading during her tenure in Congress, and blocking credit card reform while investing millions of dollars in exclusive Visa stock. Pelosi's fortune has amounted to as much as $196 million since becoming a member of Congress. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-California), whose net worth in 2010 was more than $69 million, has profited greatly from earmarking millions of dollars for her husband's property management firm. Feinstein made millions from insider-trading on Biotech stocks she purchased just before the company received $24 million in government grants and other shady deals with her corporate friends. These are just a few examples of the 250 members – so far – of the Capitol Hill millionaires club.

“Tea Party” Candidates Wealthier than their Republican Cohorts

As we’ve seen repeatedly, insider-trading laws don’t apply to Congress, nor for that matter, do many other laws. Congress, as well as the rest of Washington, has repeatedly deemed themselves above the law. In addition to profiting greatly from insider-trading information that the public isn’t privy to, Congress has tilted markets and picked winners and losers by removing a sentence from one piece of lobbyist-written legislation, or adding a sentence or clause to another.

Unsurprisingly, “Tea Party” House members are even wealthier than other Republican lawmakers (link: http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2012/01/05) – primarily since the Koch Brothers and all their shady Political Action Committees (PACs) own them too. The corporate “Tea Party” took many elections in 2010 because people were too stupid to check the lies being spread and because people – at least those who weren’t disenfranchised by the GOP’s fraudulent tactics used to steal elections -- didn’t care enough to get out and vote.

Neither members of the House Tea Party caucus nor the House Progressive caucus are even remotely close to the middle class when it comes to wealth according to the Center for Responsive Politics analysis of financial disclosure forms from 2010, the most recent available data which shows that House Tea Party members are especially wealthy. The wealth among House Tea Party members range from Rep. Stephen Fincher’s (R-Tennessee) average net worth of $3.3 million to Kenny Merchant’s (R-Texas) average net worth of $49.3 million.

The modern net worth of a member of the Tea Party caucus was $1.8 million in 2010. A group of 60 House members of the Tea Party caucus founded by Michele Bachman, includes 33 millionaires, of which 6 are worth more than $20 million, which explains why they’re more attuned to the needs of corporations and removing regulations.

Republicans Have Deeper Ties to Corporations than Democrats

The three Senate Tea Party caucus members aren’t as wealthy as their cohorts in the House. Jim DeMint (R-S. Carolina), Rand Paul (R-Kentucky) and Mike Lee (R-Utah) are on average, worth less than $774,000, well below the $2.6 million average for the Senate, and well below the $3.2 million average for non-Tea Party caucus GOP Senators (link: http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2012/01/05).

The Republican Party has deeper ties to corporations than Democrats, which also explains the differences in wealth but Democrats have deep ties to corporations too and are just as corrupt as the GOP counterparts. Both parties have profited greatly at taxpayer expense.

A recent Washington Post report claimed the members of the U.S. House of Representatives are worth an average of $725,000 in 2009 compared to $280,000 in 1984, adjusted to inflation. Figures used by the Washington Post did not include home equity (link: http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article30093.htm). The wealth of our corrupt Congress critters starkly contrasts that of most Americans who have seen their homes and retirements swindled by Wall Street with their help. Most Americans saw their average wealth drop from $20,600 to $20,500, also adjusted for inflation and not including home equity. The newest 106 members of Congress elected in 2010, including corporately backed “Tea Party” Republicans, had a median net worth of $864,000.

When you get to the crux of the problem regarding the stark contrasts between Washington and the U.S. public they illusorily serve, one thing becomes blatantly obvious: Cash has corrupted Congress (link: http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article30088.htm). In fact, politics has always been about the money for most that serve in it. Money has corrupted the U.S. political process so profoundly that Washington doesn’t run the country any more. Wealthy donors, corporations and special interest groups – fraudulent “think tanks” – who buy U.S. legislators in return for “legislation” that fawn their special interests do. Politicians collect millions of dollars while the U.S. public continues paying dearly for it. The approval rating of our corrupted Congress critters currently stands at 5 percent.

Dirty Deals Done Secretly Behind Closed Doors

The fact that our Congress is bought and paid for by fraudulent, greedy billionaires and corporations is bad enough, but when you add all the dirty dealing that goes on in secret behind closed doors, you see just how bad the situation really is, and you become extremely cynical (link: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2012/jan/05/time-to-get-corporate-cash-out-of-congress). As Bill McKibben noted, the U.S. has become unfazed by things that should shake them to the core.

Take for example, the secrecy surrounding the U.S. House of Representatives trying to force the implementation of the dirty crude Keystone XL pipeline from Canada through the U.S. to the Gulf Coast. After hundreds of thousands of Americans rallied against it, the House went behind closed doors to secretly try and implement it. Despite public objection, the House passed a resolution by a vote of 234-194 and attached it to Obama’s payroll tax cut, trying to force it through. The 234 Reps who voted to pass it had received $42 million in contributions from the Big Oil industry compared to the $8 million received by those that voted against it.

House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) received more than $1.1 million from Big Oil to push through their pipeline. Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky), Boehner’s cohort in the Senate, has received more than $1.2 million from Big Oil for the same thing. Where do you think their loyalties lie? Yet our illustrious presstitute corporate media fails to mention important information like that because they are owned by the same corporations that own our corrupted Congress critters. Instead of looking after the millions of lives that would be adversely affected by the pipeline throughout the U.S., Congress looks after the interests of the corporations trying to get their dangerous pipeline. Congress serves the corporations their beholden to, not the public that elects them.

The corporations that bought Washington shamelessly flaunt their conquests. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce -- which has in fact launched another major distortion campaign on the Keystone XL Pipeline (link: http://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2012/01/12-0) – is the fraudulent front man for a cadre of billionaires and corporations that brags about the depths of its deceptive dealings with bought and paid for politicians on its website.

Half of America is Living in Poverty

The Chamber outspent everyone in the 2010 elections than the Republican and Democratic National Committees combined (link: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2012/jan/05/time-to-get-corporate-cash-out-of-congress). 94 percent of the Chamber’s “donations” went to climate-change deniers, which explains why Congress keeps denying that climate-change is real. It also explains why bought off Congress critters keep giving billions of dollars in subsidies to Big Oil, which makes more money each year than any other industry. While Big Oil pays off Washington, we pay the price with rising costs, a lot which are attributed to speculators which Congress continues doing nothing about.

Congress, in their infinite stupidity, still frames households making $250,000 or more – a figure only achieved by the top 1.5 percent of households – as “middle class.” The base pay for our corrupted Congress critters is $174,000, which again, is more than most people make. Campaigning, and the high costs associated with it, is the top priority for most of our Congress critters once they’re in office.

Regardless of the lies being pushed by Washington and its propaganda machines about the cheerful economic and job situations, the facts reveal that half of America is living in poverty (link: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/12/27-0). Indeed, U.S. wages have stayed flat while Congress members got fat (link: http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2011/12/27-9). The time has come to put an end to corporations purchasing politicians (link: http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175485/tomgram%3A_bill_mckibben%2C_buying_congress_in_2012/).

The last 30 years have seen both taxes and representation of the people in government decline. The U.S. political system has been sold out thanks to the fraudulent ruling from the quintet of corporately-owned “Justices” on the U.S. Supreme Court – whose Chief “Justice” is a former lobbyist -- that ruled corporations had the same rights as people and opened up the floodgates by legalizing bribery (link: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/01/11-7) just over two years ago in their infamous Citizens United decision. Expect our corrupted Congress critters to get richer while their constituents get richer and believe that the protests will increase as more people wake up to that fact and take action to correct it.