Posted on 12/28/2011 2:38:08 PM PST by blam
You Won't Believe How Corrupt, Lazy And Stinking Rich Our Congress Critters Have Become
December 28, 2011
If our founding fathers could see the cesspool that the U.S. Congress has become today, they would roll over in their graves. Most Americans don't realize this, but we already have a "part-time Congress". Members of Congress only "work" a little over a third of the days on the calendar. The rest of the time they have off. It is no wonder why so many members of Congress are involved in so much corruption - they have so much free time on their hands that they are bound to get into trouble. Many members of Congress also use their positions of power and the information they learn during the course of their duties to become fabulously wealthy. At a time when incomes nationally are actually declining, our Congress critters are becoming stinking rich at a staggering pace. Yes, politics in America has always been a game that is funded and played by wealthy individuals, but things have gotten so extreme that it is hard to argue that average Americans have any control over Congress at all at this point. Instead of a government "of the people, by the people and for the people", we now have a government "of the wealthy, by the wealthy, and for the wealthy". If you doubt this, just keep on reading.
Over the past couple of decades, the "wealth gap" between members of Congress and average Americans has grown to ridiculous proportions. Things have gotten so bad that now even the New York Times is reporting on these things....
"Largely insulated from the country’s economic downturn since 2008, members of Congress — many of them among the “1 percenters” denounced by Occupy Wall Street protesters — have gotten much richer even as most of the country has become much poorer in the last six years" So how wealthy have members of Congress become?
Many of you won't believe the statistics posted below. The truth is that Congress has become all about money. It takes huge piles of money to get elected to Congress, it takes huge piles of money to stay in Congress, and most members of Congress seem to be able to accumulate gigantic piles of money while "serving" their country....
-Today, there are 250 members of Congress that are millionaires.
-According to the Wall Street Journal, the median net worth of members of Congress is now $913,000.
-The collective net worth of all of the members of Congress increased by 25 percent between 2008 and 2010. Meanwhile, the standard of living in the United States has fallen farther over the past three years than at any other time that has ever been recorded in U.S. history.
-After adjusting for inflation, between 1984 and 2009 the median net worth of members of Congress rose from $280,000 to $725,000 while the median net worth of all Americans actually declined slightly over that same time period.
-The collective net worth of all of the members of Congress is now slightly over 2 billion dollars. That is "billion" with a "b".
-In 2009, Congress was only scheduled to be in session for 137 days out of the 365 days of the year. In 2010, Congress was also only scheduled to be in session for 137 days out of the entire year. For much more on the pathetic "work schedule" of the U.S. Congress, just check out this video.
-The net worth of House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi increased by 62 percent from 2009 to 2010. In 2009 it was reported that she had a net worth of 21.7 million dollars, and in 2010 it was reported that she had a net worth of 35.2 million dollars.
-The top Republican in the Senate, Mitch McConnell, saw his wealth grow by 29 percent from 2009 to 2010. He is now worth approximately 9.8 million dollars.
-U.S. Representative Darrell Issa is worth approximately 220 million dollars. His wealth grew by approximately 37 percent from 2009 to 2010.
-The wealthiest member of Congress, U.S. Representative Michael McCaul, is worth approximately 294 million dollars.
-Those that won U.S. Senate seats during the last election spent an average of nearly $10 million on their campaigns.
-More than 5 billion dollars was spent on political campaigns back in 2008, and it is being projected that 8 billion dollars will be spent on political campaigns in 2012.
-When it comes to federal elections, the candidate that raises the most money wins about 90 percent of the time.
-Since 1964, the reelection rate for members of the U.S. House of Representatives has never fallen below 85 percent.
It is also amazing how deeply corrupt Congress has become. In a previous article, I detailed how a number of Congress critters used confidential information about the coming financial crisis that they received from U.S. Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke in September 2008 to make beneficial stock market moves before the stock market crashed later that fall....
On September 16, 2008 Paulson and Bernanke held "closed door meetings" with members of Congress and warned them that the financial system was about to totally collapse.
But instead of racing out to save the financial system, author Peter Schweizer says that many of our representatives in Congress raced out to save their stock portfolios.
In his new book, Schweizer alleges the following....
*Schweizer says that U.S. Senator Dick Durbin sold $74,715 worth of stock on September 17th and $42,000 worth of stock on September 18th.
*Schweizer says that U.S. Representative Jim Moran sold off shares in 90 different corporations on September 17th.
*Schweizer says that U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse sold off at least $250,000 worth of stock between September 18th and September 24th.
*Schweizer says that U.S. Representative Spencer Bachus bet very heavily against the stock market in the days following the September 16th meeting and made tens of thousands of dollars doing so.
*Schweizer says that U.S. Senator John Kerry bought up approximately $350,000 of Bank of America stock and approximately $550,000 of Citigroup stock during October 2008 and November of 2008. It was during this time period that the bailout programs for the big banks were being developed and debated. So has anyone gotten into trouble for any of that?
Of course not.
Congress critters play by an entirely different set of rules than the rest of us do.
At this point, the American people are absolutely disgusted with Congress. According to the latest polls, the approval rating for Congress is sitting at about 12 percent.
But of course the vast majority of our Congress critters will be re-elected over and over and over again.
Most members of Congress do not care about you. What they do care about is taking care of their political careers and taking care of their big donors. As noted earlier, it takes enormous amounts of money to win national elections in America, and most members of Congress are not about to do anything that will threaten the gravy train.
Our system is fundamentally broken. It is time to quit pretending.
But of course the mainstream media will never admit this, because mainstream media outlets are owned by many of the same corporations and wealthy individuals that fund political campaigns. For the establishment, the current system is working just fine.
So until the American people wake up and start demanding fundamental reforms, our Congress critters are going to continue to live the high life and we are going to keep on getting the same pathetic results out of Washington.
Yes I would....
They write the rules.
The Golden rules...
And they never leave. There are currently some 370 former members of congress working as lobbyists and advisors.
Who wouldn’t believe it?
Until the American people are willing to take back the freedom that is rightfully theirs from a government that presently claims it - we will continue our long slide back toward statism and economic decline.
We need term limits. I’m sorry - the novel arguments against them fly in the face of the reality of what these pigs are getting away with.
I think I understand why NOBODY when they get to DC really wants to upset the applecart....
A good portion of Americans do not care as long as they get to eat the apple once in a while.
revolution bump
Most people seem to think that their responsibility ends after they vote.
My congressman said it best when he said that the people need to constantly look over his shoulder. He’s a mortal and shouldn’t simply be trusted to do the right thing.
I wish the founding fathers had seen fit to make Congressional service like jury duty. You get drafted from the taxpayer rolls, serve two years and go home, during which time you are paid the median wage in the U.S.
-More than 5 billion dollars was spent on political campaigns back in 2008, and it is being projected that 8 billion dollars will be spent on political campaigns in 2012.
-When it comes to federal elections, the candidate that raises the most money wins about 90 percent of the time.
Repeal the 17th amendment and eliminate 33 of the most expensive elections that are run every two years.
If the Senate were no longer elected, then they would not need to raise campaign funds. They would have to look elsehwere for their re-appointment support.
As governerships change, and statehouses change, so will the Senate that represents them.
-PJ
Power and Politicians
The two just seem to roll off the tongue like ‘bread and butter’. Little wonder since the two are just as closely bound together and like bread and butter each makes the other more palatable.
So during this years end lull in the various battles being fought here's some thoughts on power and politicians.
Politicians are not like the rest of us, not at all, though they may have once been and any of us can become infected with the malady that can transform the most pleasant and ordinary man (or woman) into a smiling, pettifogging money vacuum.
But dragging in money is not the ultimate goal of the politician, money is simply a means to that end. If great gobs of money are made while in office, well, no one takes the job just to go broke, do they?
No, the goal of the politician in taking his hat in hand and begging for alms from well heeled contributors is in a word... power. Power gained by selling himself as virtuous in a practical, ‘get the job done’ way, power to cause mischief to foes and dispense the blessings of the law on friends, power to take revenge and have it administered by force of arms. In short, power to interfere significantly in others lives. That kind of power.
Not surprisingly, many congressmen have law degrees and some even practiced law I suppose. And also not surprisingly they have chosen to write the laws rather argue over them. For unlike the butcher, baker and newspaper owner, a politician has no real product to sell, no real measure of accomplishment except laws written (his staff probably did the actual writing) , sponsored, and passed, his “record”.
A U.S. senator, for example, that for several years only cosponsored a few laws might be a pleasant enough chap but not delivering any “product” he's no one to be feared and courted and made wealthy if he's not already.
Unless he sits on a committee that can bury a proposed law deeper than Hoover's secret files a senator can sponsor national peanut week or something but he has no power to strike fear in the wallets of big contributors, he has nothing on the shelves to sell.
Of course the individual congressman does not view himself as so crass and craven. He just wants to “give back to the community” or “serve the public” and righting wrongs by writing laws is the way to do it and the way to get legislation passed is to get elected and the way to get elected is to pursue the Grail of enough effective power to get things done. That usually means becoming a career politician, entrenched deeper than wild roses in a cow pasture.
None of this one term stuff unless the next election is lost and even then a job as a lobbyist may await where the levers of power are pulled out the public sight.
The politician may defend himself by pointing to his constituents, citing businessmen who want an advantage over the competition, crooks that want the laws so weak as to be useless to punish their crookery, ordinary people that don't understand that justice is a process, not an outcome and expect it to be delivered by more laws.
The office holder feels torn by having to beg for money from cads and cons in three piece suits and wing tips with something foul clinging to their soles and souls.
Yet these same people will berate the politician for his sins and demand favors just as sinful or worse.
So.. Who would want a job like that?
It's not all a bed of nails. To be elected a U.S. congressman or senator is to be admitted to a comfortable and self protecting club. An office, however modest, may be provided and funds for a staff. The surroundings are quiet, dignified and saturated with tradition and history. Not quite like changing tires in the hot sun even if the same level of education would suffice.
The pay isn't terrible even if costs are high but anyone that can't figure out how to turn a few extra dollars isn't really trying. Of course too as Mark Twain said of man awaiting hanging...it was the honor of the thing. As a Congressman or Senator the title lasts longer a purple tattoo.
But underlying all that is still the desire for power over others. It was a temptation offered Christ. Among us lessor beings, George Washington is remembered respectfully for turning down what could have been virtually a life time presidency. That he is admired for so doing shows how rare we expect that sort of self restraint and long view.
So as the barroom brawl called presidential politics resumes with the knee to the groin and the thumb to the eye I'll watch with a jaundiced view and take all the bleating and “positions on the issues” as a warning that another lout wants to be king.
Vote me I need the money!
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