5 Richest Members of Congress

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One element of the American Dream is that anyone, anytime, anywhere is free to make as much money as their ability, work ethic, and desires allow. I applaud the person who can. Not all of us are as blessed. But we all are free to do so.
Where I have a problem is the wealthy politicians trying to get us to believe they really want to pay more taxes. How stupid do they think we are?
Many voters believe the lie that, for example, Senator John Kerry actually wants to pay more taxes & that he'll push through legislation that will force him to (even though the money is really from his wife, heiress to the Heinz fortune).
Frankly I'm not dumb enough to fall for that load o'crap. If they're sincere & honestly want to me/us to believe they have my/our interests at heart, then roll back or discard all they perks they have such as franking privileges, the best health care (for which, incidentally, they don't pay one cent for), meal allotments, flying on so-called "fact-finding" soujourns at taxpayer expense, pushing pork barrel projects to cement their legacy, etc.
The perks they have dwarf anything the average taxpayer has gained through Union contracts and performance wage & benefit increases. These perks are paid for by John Q. Public & don't come out of their personal wealth.
Wake up, America!!! ANY politician who tells you that the wealthy ought to pay more taxes (because they're not paying their fair share) is nothing more than a L-I-A-R.
Don't fall for it. It's a diversion for a power grab.
Let us suppose, for argument's sake, that Jay Rockefeller says he wants to jack up the tax rate for the wealthiest Americans from an imaginary 26% to an imaginary 35% - do you really believe he's going to pay another 9% in taxes? In fact, it's doubtful he'll pay anything in the 26% neighborhood. Why? Because he has accountants & tax experts that look for every loophole so he avoids that level of taxation. And who do you think helps create the tax loopholes that Senator Rockefeller's tax experts utilize? You got it! Mr. Rockefeller's associates on the Committee that writes the tax laws, who are also going to be affected by what they pass into the tax code!!!!
Yep, if you believe they have your interests at heart - you're sadly mistaken.

Ben of OH 7:15AM April 20, 2011

Four of the five wealthiest members of Congress are Dumbocrats, and that's fine by me. So then why are the media never calling the D's the "party of the rich?"

Brien Bigelow of CA 12:23AM August 04, 2010

Why not just take the monetary value out of Civil Service (Serving your constituents.
Other than their salary, why not just take the get rich while in federal office theme off the table.
Allowing us (the American People) the benefit of having someone in Congress, the Senate or the Presidency that only wants to genuinely serve in the capacity of spokesperson for the people. They would only be there to complete the job assigned by the people for that term.
No Monetary Value. No get-rich-quick-in-congress-schemes.

alnk of CA 2:31PM May 14, 2010

I don't care, nor do I begruge anyone who have money, I only want to know how do I get mine. My being bitter/or hateing on others because they have is not American to Me.We all have smarts and need to use it to get to where we want to be.Nobody's
mad at Lottery winners because their lifestyle changed with the
roll of the balls, are you? You are not mad at your friend who
sold his house and made a big deal of flipping a house before the housing crash.Huh? We should be glad these people have been
successful, and can fix this mess we got in forwhatever reason
greedy people did what they did.You didn't question the wealth
of congress 8years ago.Did you? The media print has been printing the wealth of our congressmen for years. Stop being so
petty,and stop hate tingsmile) Think American,But we must stop
bashing each other.The world is looking at the leadership examples or watching our weaknesses and use it aganist us. I had
to take democracy vs communism and the major tenent was,destroy
a nation from within,from the outside you can see them coming.Let's not do anything from inside,so we can watch the borders from the place we can all see. Togetherness.df you look up charities,you will see how generous they are.

barbara C.Harris of FL 10:33PM May 12, 2010

Isn't it interesting that 4 of the 5 richest members of the congress are liberal, "champions of the poor" democrats?

Ron Williams of WY 11:39AM May 12, 2010

i would never have a chance running a campaign against any of these people no matter how grassroots of a following i had.lets face it without a fist full of cash of your own and friends willing to give more who have it to give, buying a seat in congress is way to expensive for the common citizen.

KEVIN SATTERFIELD of IN 10:15AM May 12, 2010

"Why is Harman listed number 1 and Kohl number 2 when Kohl's net worth is greater?"
Because they're both worth a putative $215MM, and "H" comes before "K" in the alphabet. That's all there is to it.

Michael of UT 4:23PM May 26, 2009

Why is Harman listed number 1 and Kohl number 2 when Kohl's net worth is greater?

Doug of FL 6:01AM April 27, 2009

4 out of 5 are democrats??? Thought democrats were all of the common folk! I guess if you marry the right person or if daddy or grandpa worked hard you can enjoy a life of privilidge and wealth. The Kennedy clan the Bush clan, etc. etc., all rich families who need to stop thinking they can forever run America.

Dano of IA 8:40PM December 24, 2008

With regards to my prior post, of which this is a continuation, check out David Cay Johnston's book "Perfectly Legal," regarding "the covert campaign to rig our tax system to benefit the super rich--and cheat everybody else."
Another crucial question, aside from whether one is paying their "fair share" of taxes, especially when it concerns politicians and the potential for their abuse/misuse of power, is how they came about their wealth. On one hand, it may be as simple as looking into one's party affiliation. Democrats, recognizing the upper hand of power and opportunity that the wealthy have over the poor, tend to be advocates in trying to level the playing field by cutting taxes for the poor and middle classes, whereas Republicans, like Newt Gingrich, who are at the forefront of the campaign to cut taxes on the rich, attack such tax breaks as ridiculous tax-based welfare programs and twisted socialist plots to redistribute the income from the "deserving" to the "undeserving." Such ideology not only fails miserably at assessing the situation from a compassionate viewpoint, but is also grossly lacking in wholeness of perspective, in which, by failing to address "the need quotient" at all levels of society, we weaken all of society, from the bottom up to the top down.
But, of course, not all politicians are created equal, and corruption does lie on both sides of the fence. Thus, it's not enough to take statistics like the above point-blank. Only on a case-by-case basis can you determine whether there has been evidence of misconduct, extreme greed, or the like.
As the pendulum swings, the government has for years maintained a relatively careful balance through natural checks&balances built into the system. However, anybody with any common sense knowledge knows that Washington D.C., after the last eight years, isn't anything like it used to be: our trusted checks&balances having been continuously attacked on every side and the only skill carefully employed is the strategic dismantling of them. Thus, if you've conducted any "relevant" research regarding politics of the past decade, you'd have to be delusional to not see that there's conclusive evidence that a surprising majority of paths of prominent Republicans lead directly to the proverbial Doghouse, where something mighty rotten has crept in over the last few decades--with special appearance in the Bush administration, through the diabolical masterminds of the neoconservative movement--the ultra right wing of the Republican Party; this is the real issue of urgency that we need to be addressing today (Google Neoconservative/Cheney, Wolfowitz, Kristol, Gingrich, Rumsfeld, Rove, Fox News for a good start). Such themes as war-mongering, war profiteering, disaster capitalism, corporatism have resulted in huge monetary gains for many ambitious conservatives (follow this link for the land of the right-winged rich: http://citizensforethics.org/node/21680). So, in other words, don’t mistake appearances for truth. Investigate everything and let’s take back our country united!

Teri Foss of WA 6:36AM October 29, 2008