Isn't this just a kick in the head? 237 millionaires in Congress.. No health care for us because it will be to costly to the country yet here is all these millionaires making this decision for us. Isn't this sweet of them? Damn! Makes you proud to be an American, doesn't it? -Ric
"As Washington reels from the news of 10.2 percent unemployment, the Center for Responsive Politics is out with a new report describing the wealth of members of Congress.
Among the highlights: 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.
All told, at least seven lawmakers have net worths greater than $100 million, according to the Center’s 2008 figures.
“Many Americans probably have a sense that members of Congress aren’t hurting, even if their government salary alone is in the six figures, much more than most Americans make,” said CRP spokesman Dave Levinthal. “What we see through these figures is that many of them have riches well beyond that salary, supplemented with securities, stock holdings, property and other investments.”
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But alas, there's no legal way for us to limit their compensation. I wish I could vote myself raises and fancy perks!
I don't understand why DC politicos need health coverage at all. If they make over a certain amount of money, let them find their own health insurance, just like I had to! That would teach them a thing or two.
Rated!
Here's a post I wrote about presidential lotteries during the last election. (I apologize for the anti republican bias. I was naive and young.)
Watching the Bush administration treat Iraq like its private AMT for the last seven years, and now faced with the possibility of watching McCain and Palin "bring the pain," I'm starting to think that there needs to be a better way of selecting a president.
Maybe it's time for a national Presidential lottery, a random picking of a president based on only two criteria: you can't be a felon and you got to be at least 35. With our technology, we could easily put everyone who meets the criteria in a big electronic fish bowl and draw a winner.
I know some people will say we already have a lottery. They look at Sarah Palin and say, "She's kind of random. There doesn't seem to be much reasoning behind her selection."
But I think those people miss the point. Palin wasn't picked randomly. McCain must have thought it out, or least thought about it.
Really, we need to get beyond all of this and work on putting in a national lottery.
The biggest advantage is that the odds are we wouldn't get some politico pit-bull, raring to chew off the leg of any Democrat that gets in her way, and we wouldn't get some fuzzy-headed geezer like McCain who unleashed her.
Instead, we'd get some average, random American who, I'm sure, would do as good a job as McCain or Palin as president without all of the hateful posturing and silly name calling.
Rated.
Case closed.