Posted on 02/27/2015 7:14:28 AM PST by SeekAndFind
The fat cats in Washington D.C. are living the high life, and they are doing it at your expense. Over the past decade, there has been one area of the country which has experienced a massive economic boom. Thanks to wildly out of control government spending, the Washington D.C. region is absolutely swimming in cash. In fact, at this point the state of Maryland has the most millionaires per capita in the entire nation and it isn’t even close. If you have never lived there, it is hard to describe what the D.C. area is like. Every weekday morning, hordes of lawyers, lobbyists and government bureaucrats descend upon D.C. from the surrounding suburbs. And at the end of the day, the process goes in reverse. Everyone is just trying to get their piece of the pie, and it is a pie that just keeps on growing as government salaries, government contracts and government giveaways just get larger and larger. Of course our founders never intended for this to happen. They wanted a very small and simple federal government. Sadly, today we have the most bloated central government in the history of the planet and it gets worse with each passing year.
If you were to ask most Americans, they would tell you that the wealthiest Americans probably live in cities such as New York or San Francisco. But thanks to the Obama administration (and before that the Bush and Clinton administrations), the state of Maryland is packed with millionaires. In particular, the Maryland suburbs immediately surrounding D.C. are absolutely overflowing with government fat cats that make a living at our expense. Every weekday morning, huge numbers of them leave their mini-mansions in places such as Potomac and Rockville and drive their luxury vehicles to work in the city. As the Washington Post has detailed, at this point approximately 8 percent of all households in the entire state of Maryland contain millionaires, and the rest of the area is not doing too shabby either…
In Maryland, nearly 8 out of every 100 households in 2014 had assets topping $1 million, giving the state more millionaires per capita than any other in the country, according to a new report from Phoenix Marketing International.
The rest of the Beltway isn’t lacking in millionaires either: The District and Virginia ranked in the top 10 among those with the highest number of millionaire households per capita in 2014. In Virginia, which was No. 6 on the list, 6.76 percent of the state’s 3.17 million households are millionaires. And in the District, which rounds out the top 10, 6.25 percent of its more than 292,000 households are millionaires.
And while not too many of them are millionaires, your average federal workers that toil in D.C. are doing quite well too.
Once upon a time, it was considered to be a “sacrifice” to go into “government service”.
Not anymore.
If you can believe it, approximately 17,000 federal employees made more than $200,000 last year.
Overall, compensation for federal employees comes to a grand total of close to half a trillion dollars every 12 months.
In fact, there are tens of thousands of federal employees that make more than the governors of their own states do.
Does that seem right to you?
If you want to live “the American Dream” these days, the Washington area is the place to go. Just check out the following description of the region from the Washington Post&##8230;
Washingtonians now enjoy the highest median household income of any metropolitan area in the country, and five of the top 10 jurisdictions in America — Loudoun, Howard and Fairfax counties, and Falls Church and Fairfax City — are here, census data shows.
The signs of that wealth are on display all over, from the string of luxury boutiques such as Gucci and Tory Burch opening at Tysons Galleria to the $15 cocktails served over artisanal ice at the W Hotel in the District to the ever-larger houses rising off River Road in Potomac.
And of course let us not forget the fat cats in Congress.
According to CNN, our Congress critters are now wealthier than every before…
The typical American family is still struggling to recover from the Great Recession, but Congress is getting wealthier every year.
The median net worth of lawmakers was just over $1 million in 2013, or 18 times the wealth of the typical American household, according to new research released Monday by the Center for Responsive Politics.
And while Americans’ median wealth is down 43% since 2007, Congress members’ net worth has jumped 28%.
Not only that, there are nearly 200 members of Congress that are actually multimillionaires…
Nearly 200 are multimillionaires. One hundred are worth more than $5 million; the top-10 deal in nine digits. The annual congressional salary alone—$174,000 a year—qualifies every member as the top 6 percent of earners. None of them are close to experiencing the poverty-reduction programs—affordable housing, food assistance, Medicaid—that they help control. Though some came from poverty, a recent analysis by Nicholas Carnes, in his book White Collar Government: The Hidden Role of Class in Economic Policymaking, found that only 13 out of 783 members of Congress from 1999 to 2008 came from a “blue-collar” upbringing.
Incredible.
But even though almost all of them are quite wealthy, they don’t hesitate to spend massive amounts of taxpayer money on their own personal needs.
For example, according to the Weekly Standard, more than five million dollars was spent on the hair care needs of U.S. Senators alone over one recent 15 year period…
Senate Hair Care Services has cost taxpayers about $5.25 million over 15 years. They foot the bill of more than $40,000 for the shoeshine attendant last fiscal year. Six barbers took in more than $40,000 each, including nearly $80,000 for the head barber.
And in one recent year, an average of $4,005,900 was spent on “personal” and “office” expenses per U.S. Senator.
So the grand total would have been over 400 million dollars for a single year.
That seems excessive, doesn’t it?
And even when they end up leaving Washington, our Congress critters have ensured that they will continue to collect money from U.S. taxpayers for the rest of their lives…
In 2011, 280 former lawmakers who retired under a former government pension system received average annual pensions of $70,620, according to a Congressional Research Service report. They averaged around 20 years of service. At the same time, another 215 retirees (elected in 1984 or later with an average of 15 years of service) received average annual checks of roughly $40,000 a year.
If you can believe it, there are quite a few former lawmakers that are collecting federal pensions for life worth at least $100,000 annually. The list includes Newt Gingrich, Bob Dole, Trent Lott, Dick Gephardt and Dick Cheney.
Of course the biggest windfalls of all are for our ex-presidents. Most Americans would be shocked to learn that the U.S. government is spending approximately 3.6 million dollars a year to support the lavish lifestyles of former presidents such as George W. Bush and Bill Clinton.
So does this make you angry?
Or are you okay with these fat cats living the high life at our expense?
I guess that means in our version of Panem, I live in the Capitol District.
Jackals feeding on the carrion corpse of this country. I hope they get food poisoning.
Washington,DC
It is a company like any other, with individuals acting out in their own interests.
The difference being they have guns and can kill or imprison anyone in their way.
Washngton,DC
Time to start culling that herd.
Actually, way past time.
One reason is he pays more to rent a place to park his Beamer per month than I ever paid per month on our downtown 2 story 7k Plus sq. ft. commercial building. His apartment rent is slightly less then want he pays for parking.
200K sounds like a lot of money and around here it is. In NYC or Near DC I doubt it.
Leftist/Progressive government is, by default, corrupt and crony government.
When everything is controlled by politics, then only those with political connections get rich
I live in the NYC suburbs and I don’t make $200,000 a year, yet I live quite comfortably and am able to put my kids through college.
There’s something wrong with you relative’s priorities and the way he handles his money. I know I wouldn’t trust him with mine.
I skipped right to a comment without looking at the story to lodge my guess that Maryland has a strong population of government parasites and scammers.
Ain’t Marxism wonderful?
Pray America is waking
From the first time I saw that film, I had that exact sense. All we need to complete the vision are the weird styling of hair and clothes.
Assets = what? A paid off home and less than adequate retirement savings can easily put one in the million dollar range. I’m early 50’s and have assets around a million but certainly don’t live a lavish lifestyle and at least 10 more years to even think about realistically retiring. Vehicles all have over 100,000 miles with newest being 8 years old and the oldest with over 250K 16 years-old. I would bet that the majority of the 8% are 55 or older.
Fortunately I live in NE Maryland, almost as far from that swamp-cesspool DC as is possible in Maryland.
If you must know, there are plenty of parasites, particularly clustered around DC and Baltimore.
Didn’t read your article, but I have always assumed it is the result of having access to the corridors of power in Washington D.C.
Me too. Looks like our guess was right on the money judging by the comments.
The problem with kicking out incumbents is they start to collect pensions on Day 2, even if they only served on Day 1. We first have to reform the government pension system and that will never happen even if the country declares bankruptcy.
Not QUITE. There’s a lot of biotech development in the area, as well as a lot of computer and telecom tech produced here in Metro DC.
You just don’t see it, as it’s massively overshadowed by Fedzilla.
And only the Elect are really doing well. I haven’t had a raise or bonus in years, but the super-rich are making money hand-over fist.
Meanwhile, those of us mere workers, out in the endless suburbs STILL haven’t had our property values recover. . .
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