[Vision2020] The 1% in Congress
Sunil Ramalingam
sunilramalingam at hotmail.com
Sun Nov 13 14:00:42 PST 2011
Paul,
You say, '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).'
Do you think those laws are somehow disconnected from the institutions that pass and sign them? Did they just spring up, somehow disconnected from their beneficiaries and sponsors?
Of course there's a direct connection between a ruling class this wealthy, and legislation that benefits others in their group, and in whose pockets they so comfortably dwell.
How come that's not class warfare? How come it's only class warfare when someone says, 'Those guys are screwing us?'
Sunil
Date: Sat, 12 Nov 2011 09:09:18 -0800
From: godshatter at yahoo.com
To: rforce2003 at yahoo.com
CC: vision2020 at moscow.com
Subject: Re: [Vision2020] The 1% in Congress
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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