Guess How Many Millionaires in Congress?

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The Richest Rep: Darrell Issa

Since Congress is suddenly so interested in discussing and regulating what other people make, let's discuss the financial condition of our hardworking, selfless Reps.

Take a guess what percentage of Congress are millionaires...I'll give you a jumping off point:  1% of the total US population are millionaires.

You probably figured that Congress probably had between 5 or 10 times the amount of millionaires as the rest of the country, that would make sense.  But you'd be way wrong.

According to the Center for Responsive Politics, a whopping 44% of Congress men and women are millionaires, that's a total of 237 of them!  So it's more like 44 times more millionaires.

Here's a quick rundown of the Fattest of Cats from Politico.com:

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.

All told, at least seven lawmakers have net worths greater than $100 million, according to the Center’s 2008 figures.

OK, so to sum up, only 1% of Americans are worth a million or more, but almost half of our elected officials are - why, we're like peas in a pod!  Hard to believe there's such a disconnect between the everyday Americans and their duly-elected representative overclass.

Source:

237 Millionaires in Congress (Politico)


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