[Vision2020] 99% and 1%: Was Congress 1%
Donovan Arnold
donovanjarnold2005 at yahoo.com
Sat Nov 12 16:01:53 PST 2011
The point of the 99% is not
to villainize the top
one percent. Or the top any percentage. The point is to bring attention to the
verity that we have a nation that no longer performs for the vast majority
of Americans. We have a quickly evaporating middle class. We have an exponentially widening gap between the underprivileged and the affluent. There is an ever
increasing population that has less and less of a percentage of the wealth
while there is an ever lessening percentage of the
population with a larger and larger portion of the wealth. For the last four
decades the nation's wealth has increased many fold, yet the wealth of the
majority of Americans has declined. There is something in the wrong. This
nation is no longer functioning in favor of the people. And many Americans want
our leaders to know, understand, and mend the wounds of this country. Any
nation, no matter how poorly managed and tyrannical will always present some opportunities and maintain rich and poor classes. But what
has always made America the nation that we know it to be is it was designed to work for most people, to
provide a bounty of opportunity, and a thriving,
healthy middle class. Occupying Wall Street is not
revenge, it is not judgment,
it is an intervention.
Donovan J. Arnold
________________________________
From: Paul Rumelhart <godshatter at yahoo.com>
To: Ron Force <rforce2003 at yahoo.com>
Cc: "vision2020 at moscow.com" <vision2020 at moscow.com>
Sent: Saturday, November 12, 2011 12:59 PM
Subject: Re: [Vision2020] The 1% in Congress
Wonderful. I can't wait for your in-depth report on their shoe sizes, then. Paul On 11/12/2011 11:44 AM, Ron Force wrote:
Point? I didn't have a point, other than I thought it was interesting, factual information. Seems like it was more of a Rorschach test.
>
>
>Ron Force Moscow Idaho USA
>
>
>________________________________
>From: Paul Rumelhart <godshatter at yahoo.com>
>To: Tom Hansen <thansen at moscow.com>
>Cc: Ron Force <rforce2003 at yahoo.com>; "vision2020 at moscow.com" <vision2020 at moscow.com>
>Sent: Saturday, November 12, 2011 10:14 AM
>Subject: Re: [Vision2020] The 1% in Congress
>
>Oh. I'm sorry to be so dense. What exactly was Ron's point, then? Are you making the claim that every one-percenter is trying to "get filthier and richer off the backs of middle-income and low-income Americans?" What about the two-percenters? Are they greedy bastards, or is it just the one-percenters? Corporations can't be one-percenters, can they? That concept (so I thought) relates only to people. You do understand that if people shifted their targets (of protests) to be those known to be involved in unethical business behaviors, I (and maybe others like me) would fall in line with you? As it stands, I can't get behind a push to ostracize a minority based solely on income levels alone. Paul On 11/12/2011 09:49 AM, Tom Hansen wrote:
>Paul, Paul, Paul . . .
>>
>>
>>Ron Force lists a bunch of rich congressmen, as conceivable members of the one-percenters, and you're all over it like Sitler on an alter boy.
>>
>>
>>If you take the time to listen and/or read, Paul, you just may attain a fundamental understanding of the 99-percenters' concept. It is my substantiated opinion that the "one-percenters" are (as I explained twice before) the unimaginably, filthy rich corporations seeking to get filthier and richer off the backs of middle-income and low-income Americans.
>>
>>
>>Jeesh!
>>Seeya round town, Moscow.
>>
>>
>>Tom Hansen
>>Moscow, Idaho
>>
>>
>>"If not us, who?
>>If not now, when?"
>>
>>
>>- Unknown
>> On Nov 12, 2011, at 9:09 AM, Paul Rumelhart <godshatter at yahoo.com> wrote:
>> This kind of thing is a good illustration of what concerns me about this whole 1% / 99% metric. Here is a list of people who are in Congress who have a lot of money. So what? There is no indication as to how these people got their money. No condemnation of certain Congressmen because they passed legislation that directly helped their bottom line. No effort to separate the wheat from the chaff. How many of these people came into their wealth and decided they wanted to do something good with it but also understand the idea behind the phrase "free milk and a cow"? The only thing we can say is that they are doing well. it looks vaguely like a target list, frankly. What ever happened to the good old American Dream(tm)? What we should be focused on is unmitigated greed. It exists in all levels of society, not just in the most wealthy. Condemn the laws that encourage it, such as the ability of shareholders to sue if a company is
making a decision that affects short-term profits in favor of long-term growth or the various tax dodges written into the tax code to benefit specific companies over their competition (making for a non-free trade market). There are plenty other examples of outright greed that we could be focusing on. Instead, we are focusing on net wealth as some kind of metric of Good vs. Evil. Sure, the wealthy could be doing more to help the poor, but so could each one of us. While we're on the subject of the seven deadly sins, why not take a close look at "envy" while we're at it? Paul On 11/11/2011 04:34 PM, Ron Force wrote:
>>>Table 2: All members of Congress with average net worth above $9 million, from 2009
>>>>Name
>>>>Minimum Wealth
>>>>Maximum Wealth
>>>>Average
>>>>Chamber
>>>>Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) $156,050,022 $451,100,000 $303,575,011 House
>>>>John Kerry (D-Mass.) $182,755,534 $294,869,059 $238,812,296 Senate
>>>>Mark Warner (D-Va.) $65,692,210 $283,077,995 $174,385,102 Senate
>>>>Jared Polis (D-Colo.) $36,694,140 $285,123,996 $160,909,068 House
>>>>Herb Kohl (D-Wis.) $89,358,027 $231,245,995 $160,302,011 Senate
>>>>Vernon Buchanan (R-Fla.) -$69,434,661 $366,180,982 $148,373,160 House
>>>>Michael McCaul (R-Texas) $73,685,086 $201,537,000 $137,611,043 House
>>>>James E. Risch (R-Idaho) $38,936,114 $179,131,990 $109,034,052 Senate
>>>>Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) $61,446,018 $136,218,002 $98,832,010 Senate
>>>>Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) $64,210,256 $125,529,976 $94,870,116 Senate
>>>>Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) $46,055,250 $108,109,018 $77,082,134 Senate
>>>>Frank R. Lautenberg (D-N.J.) $49,083,204 $104,690,018 $76,886,611 Senate
>>>>Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) -$7,356,915 $124,229,990 $58,436,537 House
>>>>Gary Miller (R-Calif.) $19,365,053 $84,302,000 $51,833,526 House
>>>>Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) $9,778,047 $91,656,998 $50,717,522 Senate
>>>>Diane Lynn Black (R-Tenn.) $14,673,049 $84,145,990 $49,409,519 House
>>>>Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-N.J.) $19,898,179 $67,697,000 $43,797,589 House
>>>>Rick Berg (R-N.D.) $19,347,579 $58,981,451 $39,164,515 House
>>>>Nita M. Lowey (D-N.Y.) $14,900,036 $63,125,000 $39,012,518 House
>>>>Kenny Marchant (R-Texas) $13,303,385 $63,106,351 $38,204,868 House
>>>>Denny Rehberg (R-Mont.) $6,598,014 $56,244,997 $31,421,505 House
>>>>Scott Rigell (R-Va.) $11,618,078 $48,200,000 $29,909,039 House
>>>>Olympia J. Snowe (R-Maine) $12,556,055 $44,669,000 $28,612,527 Senate
>>>>James B. Renacci (R-Ohio) $17,571,131 $39,297,044 $28,434,087 House
>>>>Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) $11,522,909 $44,209,871 $27,866,390 Senate
>>>>Carolyn B. Maloney (D-N.Y.) $7,045,017 $41,899,994 $24,472,505 House
>>>>Tom Petri (R-Wis.) $5,111,026 $43,765,999 $24,438,512 House
>>>>John Campbell (R-Calif.) $9,227,063 $37,282,000 $23,254,531 House
>>>>Steve Pearce (R-N.M.) $8,368,014 $37,945,000 $23,156,507 House
>>>>Richard L Hanna (R-N.Y.) $10,960,117 $33,276,000 $22,118,058 House
>>>>Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) $15,681,206 $27,543,006 $21,612,106 Senate
>>>>Blake Farenthold (R-Texas) $10,359,086 $31,381,997 $20,870,541 House
>>>>John Hoeven (R-N.D.) -$12,829,960 $52,851,999 $20,011,019 Senate
>>>>Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) $7,102,036 $32,756,000 $19,929,018 Senate
>>>>Kay R. Hagan (D-N.C.) $3,549,596 $33,149,981 $18,349,788 Senate
>>>>F. James Sensenbrenner Jr. (R-Wis.) $14,990,621 $20,923,567 $17,957,094 House
>>>>Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) $1,056,768 $34,566,596 $17,811,682 Senate
>>>>Michael F Bennet (D-Colo.) $6,217,020 $27,780,000 $16,998,510 Senate
>>>>Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) $10,447,125 $23,082,001 $16,764,563 Senate
>>>>Nan Hayworth (R-N.Y.) $9,542,219 $23,259,000 $16,400,609 House
>>>>Fred Upton (R-Mich.) $7,010,173 $25,651,000 $16,330,586 House
>>>>Rosa L. DeLauro (D-Conn.) $5,429,018 $26,697,997 $16,063,507 House
>>>>John McCain (R-Ariz.) $9,769,247 $22,072,994 $15,921,120 Senate
>>>>Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas) $7,790,095 $20,949,999 $14,370,047 House
>>>>Cynthia Marie Lummis (R-Wyo.) $4,939,028 $23,591,999 $14,265,513 House
>>>>Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.) $6,393,295 $20,874,000 $13,633,647 Senate
>>>>Shelley Berkley (D-Nev.) $6,593,088 $20,654,033 $13,623,560 House
>>>>Jackie Speier (D-Calif.) $4,561,077 $20,503,000 $12,532,038 House
>>>>Tom Price (R-Ga.) $7,653,606 $17,121,588 $12,387,597 House
>>>>Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) $8,010,107 $16,623,001 $12,316,554 Senate
>>>>Trent Franks (R-Ariz.) $4,100,005 $20,250,000 $12,175,002 House
>>>>Randy Neugebauer (R-Texas) $6,126,070 $18,078,998 $12,102,534 House
>>>>Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.) $6,407,085 $17,427,999 $11,917,542 Senate
>>>>Rob Portman (R-Ohio) $5,544,075 $17,468,999 $11,506,537 Senate
>>>>David Dreier (R-Calif.) $5,264,092 $17,715,000 $11,489,546 House
>>>>David B. McKinley (R-W.Va.) $5,216,060 $14,316,000 $9,766,030 House
>>>>John A. Yarmuth (D-Ky.) $2,850,009 $16,349,999 $9,600,004 House
>>>>John Fleming (R-La.) $2,153,834 $16,797,770 $9,475,802 House
>>>>Jon Runyan (R-N.J.) $5,000,034 $13,674,999 $9,337,516 House
>>>>Source: Center for Responsive Politics
>>>>
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>>======================================================= List services made available by First Step Internet, serving the communities of the Palouse since 1994. http://www.fsr.net mailto:Vision2020 at moscow.com ======================================================= ======================================================= List services made available by First Step Internet, serving the communities of the Palouse since 1994. http://www.fsr.net mailto:Vision2020 at moscow.com=======================================================
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