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By Cliff Montgomery – Feb. 5th, 2012
Why are Congressional lawmakers so clearly out of touch with you and the other 99% of Americans? Perhaps it’s because almost half of them are millionaires.
“About 47 percent of Congress, or 250 current members of Congress, are millionaires,” pointed out a little- discussed November 2011 “study by the Center for Responsive Politics.”
The Center for Responsive Politics, or CRP, “is the nation’s premier research group tracking and reporting on money in federal politics and its effect on elections and public policy,” according to a CRP self-description.
The Center appears to have been influenced by a main point of the Occupy movement, as it points out in its review that the millionaire lawmakers’ “lofty financial status is enjoyed by only about one percent of Americans.”
“The vast majority of members of Congress are quite comfortable, financially, while many of their own constituents suffer from economic hardships,” pointed out Sheila Krumholz, who works as executive director of CRP.
So “it’s no surprise that so many people grumble about lawmakers being out-of-touch,” Krumholz added.
“Few Americans enjoy the same financial cushion maintained by most members of Congress,” stated Krumholz, “or [have] the same access to market-altering information that could yield personal financial gains.”
“Economic well-being knows no partisan loyalty,” continued the CRP report.
“Fully 37 Senate Democrats and 30 Senate Republicans reported an average net worth in excess of $1 million in 2010,” stated the Center.
“The same was true of 110 House Republicans and 73 House Democrats,” according to CRP.
The wealth of Congressional members was revealed thanks to a Center review “of lawmakers’ personal financial disclosure forms covering calendar year 2010.” The findings were “based on the median values of lawmakers’ disclosed assets and liabilities,” declares OpenSecrets.org, official website of the CRP.
On a related note, The American Spark also is printing for its readers an interesting graph created by the fine team at CRP. It shows the most popular corporate investments for America’s Congresspeople. The graph is printed below.
