MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
US congress becomes 'club' of millionaires: Democrats slightly wealthier than Republicans
The richest member is Republican congressman Darrell Issa with a net worth of 598 million dollars For the first time, half of the members of the US Congress are millionaires, according to a wealth analysis. At least 268 of the 534 politicians in the Senate and House of Representatives had a net worth of 1m dollars or more in 2012.
Democrats were slightly wealthier than Republicans, found the data from the Center for Responsive Politics (CRP) at OpenSecrets.org.
It comes as politicians debate national jobless benefits and the minimum wage. The median net worth for Washington politicians came in at one million dollars according to data. Democrats registered a median wealth of 1.04m while Republicans had 1m.
Senators ranked higher than members of the House in median wealth, with 2.7m versus 896,000 dollars in the lower chamber.
The wealthiest member of Congress was Republican Congressman Darrell Issa. The Californian reported a net worth of up to 598m, earned largely through sales of a car antitheft system.
The poorest member of Congress was also a California Republican, Congressman David Valadao. He listed debts upwards of $12m, largely stemming from loans on a family dairy farm.
As the US Congress suffers under some of its lowest approval ratings in history, “there's been no change in our appetite to elect affluent politicians to represent our concerns in Washington”, CRP director Sheila Krumholz told the AFP news agency.
Also necessary is wealth “to run financially viable campaigns”, she added.
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Read all commentsAnybody who cannot make a million out of being in Congress should be chucked out by the voters as being incompetent because all politicians everywhere are self-seeking narcissists.
Jan 11th, 2014 - 09:40 am 0Paupers compared to China's politicians.
Jan 11th, 2014 - 10:30 am 0They are millionaires before getting there. GW is rolling in his grave, though was was a multi-millionaire in the context of his day. However, he knew what service to his country meant and resigned so as not to forget his new born country was a democracy and nothing else.
Jan 11th, 2014 - 12:44 pm 0State Senators and Representatives is where one sees more of the ordinary Joe's serving in Congress.
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