How do so many politicians get rich?

The Virginian ^ | 1/2/2009 | Moneyrunner

[moneyrunner]

Politicians have salaries that are higher than average, but not THAT high.

A Senator’s salary is $169,300 and a member of the House of Representatives earns the same. That’s a good income but not enough to become ultra-wealthy.

So …

I've always wondered how Lyndon Johnson became a millionaire while earning for a lifetime a modest federal salary.

How did Nick Mavroules, who became a Congressman in 1978, avoid detection for so long? He pleaded guilty in 1993 to bribery and racketeering charges.

How come Rep. Charlie Rangel (NY) owns so much property in New York and an expensive villa in the Dominican Republic? -- all of this on a representative's salary.

[mvpel]

"I’m going to keep this Senate option for me a real possibility, you know, and therefore I can drive a hard bargain. You hear what I’m saying? And if I don’t get what I want and I’m not satisfied with it, then I’ll just take the Senate seat myself."

[RightOnline]

Sweetheart deals, outright corruption/theft, bribery.....you name it.

Any wonder these morons will do anything to be re-elected?

[steelyourfaith]

“Public Service” /S

[PGalt]

I dunno, ask the CFR architect? Campaign Financial-oligarchy Reform has worked so well, hasn’t it?

“The supremacy of finance capital over all other forms of capital means the predominance of the rentier and of the financial oligarchy; it means that a small number of financially “powerful” states stand out among all the rest. The extent to which this process is going on may be judged from the statistics on emissions, i.e., the issue of all kinds of securities.” - Vladimir Ilyich Lenin

Ask the fed, the treasury, the banking committee.

[mysterio]

How do so many politicians get rich?

They are part of the ruling class. They consolidate power, and the money-centered oligarchs buy in. The oligarchs trade money and power with each other, and the rest of us work our butts off and fund the whole thing.

Pretty good racket, eh?

[Le Chien Rouge]

How many ‘modest salary’ government officials have a high- salary lobbyist spouse or family member????

[2nd Bn, 11th Mar]

I read an interesting comment the other day, which suggested we make all congressmen and senators wear NASCAR like jump suits. All the companies that have “invested” would have their logos on the jump suits and we’d know who the congresscritter was beholden to.

[dfwgator]

They make their money the old-fashioned way, they embezzle it.

[puppypusher]

Just ask Chris Dodd and Barney Frank. Personnaly I think Bribery is involved.I’m really angry that those two haven’t had their perp-walk yet.

[SERE_DOC]

That's easy they (collectively) are a bunch of crooks and they get away with it by professional courtesy with other crooks
If not then explain as the country is collapsing financially, who else other than crooks would vote themselves a $4700 a year raise, and WTF do we do about it, not a damn thing. Why does America stand for such criminality?

Perhaps the great and powerful "O" is just what America deserves to teach us a lesion in humility. Kinda like in the old testament.

[pieceofthepuzzle]

The solution is to eliminate career politicians. The total amount of time served as an elected official should be no more than 8 years local/state; 8 years federal. No matter what! Yes, that means Presidents would not have long track records etc., but so what. There are plenty of other ways to develop a track record and show qualifications without being a career politician. Tell me how three years of law school and a subsequent career in pretty much nothing but politics qualifies someone to be an arbiter of how the rest of us live. In my view anyone who voices the desire to spend their life in politics should be excluded from public office.

[wagglebee]

I've always wondered how Lyndon Johnson became a millionaire while earning for a lifetime a modest federal salary.

LBJ got ALL of his money from his wife. Lady Bird was independently wealthy.

The stuff about Rangel is what interests me the most.

[lgjhn23]

As I posted on another thread; one has to remember what a congress critter really is. Most are lawyers that could NOT make it in the vile and corrupt world of lawyerism...so they resorted to politics. They were born liars and thieves and once OPM (other peoples’ money) becomes available to them, they’re like foxes in the henhouse. They got rich the old fashion way; they stoled it, swindled it, stepped on the little guy to get it, etc. When you mix the mental disease of liberalism with this kind of ilk, you get what you see now residing in DC. That whole stinkin’ rats nest needs to be voted out of there and all new everyday-type people (non-lawyer types) selected from Harry Reid’s “unwashed masses” need to be voted in. It surely couldn’t be any worse than this bunch of used a$$-wipes. Term-limits need to be instilled to keep the corrupt trash outta there. As you can tell, I’m a real big fan of this corrupt bunch of lying thieves.

[Just A Nobody]

$169,300. is not a bad salary when most all of your other expenses are also paid by the plebs.

Who pays those salaries?
Who pays for their healthcare benefits?
Who pays for their automobile?
Who pays for the insurance on said auto?
Who pays for the gas to run said auto?
Who pays for all their traveling expenses -- here and abroad?
Who pays for their housing?
Who pays their homeowners insurance?
Who pays for their over the top, fit for a king, lifetime retirement and healthcare benefits after only 2 years on the job?
Who pays their phone bills and/or other utilities?
Who pays for their re-election campaigns?

$169,300 is not a bad salary for an average workweek of what...2-3 days.

What other job allows you to take 2 years off your job, with full pay and benefits, travel the country and the world while looking for another job?

What employer allows YOU to decide when you get a raise and how much that raise will be, regardless of job performance?

The bribes, payoffs and all the other little perks are just a little gravy on the side.

And the American people yawn, roll over every 2 and 4 years and go back to sleep.

[aimhigh]

LBJ got ALL of his money from his wife. Lady Bird was independently wealthy.

I remember hearing about Lady Bird traveling through Texas, forcing radio stations to sell themselves to her. "Sell or the FCC will shut you down." She knew the game.

[wagglebee]

There is probably some truth to that, but Lady Bird inhereted a ton of money from her father.

[y6162]

“Just ask Chris Dodd and Barney Frank...”

As a Ct resident, I’ve watched Dodd for years mooching off the private sector. Dodd never pays for anything. Dodd has never worked an honest day’s labor his entire worthless life.

[andy58-in-nh]

Yours is actually a rather good description. People with few useful skills other than the low arts of popularity are naturally attracted to an opportunity to use their influence to control and dispense large sums of other people's money. In that capacity, the fewer principles they have, the better, as conscience and duty are positive impediments to a life of crime.

However, I see term limits as the wrong solution - setting artificial time constraints on a Congressperson's tenure does not address the true source of the problem: the expansion and concentration of political power in the Federal government; in this instance, in the Legislative branch. Remove Congress' power and authority to act on matters beyond the scope of their Constitutional duties, and many of their excesses would no longer be possible.

If Congress will not voluntarily limit their extra-Constitutional meddling, than the Supreme Court must be prompted to act. Perhaps they might also examine the jurisdictional excesses of the Federal Judiciary and the Executive branch while they are at it.

In any case, we are never going to get back to what America was intended to be until the people decide that the costs of a government run amok are too great and painful to bear in relation to whatever pilfered trinkets are held forth by the petty crooks and shysters who now control Congress.

[JimRed]

Bottom line: they don’t get term limited out before they’ve mastered gaming the system.

TERM LIMITS, NOW AND FOREVER!