Congress: Just Like You, Only Much Richer

“Congress is rich. The average net worth in Congress is a bit more than $6 million, while the median net worth is $1 million. To put that in context, $4 million in net worth is enough to put someone in the top 1 percent, and $660,000 is enough to put an individual in the top 10 percent. Meanwhile, the median family wealth for whites is $134,000 and for blacks is $11,000. Emerging political science research suggests that the implications of this class bias are profound and important.”

— “The death of working-class politics: How the wealthy conquered Congress and abandoned blue-collar America,” Sean McElwee, Salon

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Short link: http://wp.me/p6sb6-kfB

Image by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

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Remote Control: Congressional Drone Caucus

Drone aircraft, unmanned aerial vehicles or UAVs, have battled in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Sudan, Yemen, and, now, the United States House of Representatives. While it’s been flying under the radar until now, Congress has a Drone Caucus, officially the Unmanned Systems Caucus.

Congress has spent $12 Billion on UAVs since 2009, an amount that will increase dramatically now that domestic use of drones has been approved. Most of the new drones flying in the U.S. will be used for border security. Twenty-one congressmen from border states belong to the Drone Caucus, and the big drone manufacturers have donated around $1 Million to their campaigns. Expect that amount to ramp up, too.

More:

“The Drone Makers and Their Friends in Washington,”Jill Replogle, KPBS

“Who’s the Immigrant?”

Congressman Luis Gutierrez (D, IL-4) imagined what Arizona’s lawmen will have to do when they try to enforce the state’s “Show Me Your Papers” law.  He previewed the scenario as a new quiz show, “Who’s the Immigrant?”, on the House floor today:

Leave Congress, Cash In

It’s a sad day when our public servants leave the halls of Congress. They cry all the way to the bank. An analysis by Lee Fang finds that when congressmen become lobbyists, their income increases astronomically:

“When a Congressman Becomes a Lobbyist, He Gets a 1,452% Raise (on Average),” Lee Fang, Republic Report

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Short Link: http://wp.me/p6sb6-cM8

Image by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

Comments are welcome if they are on-topic, substantive, concise, and not boring or obscene. Comments may be edited for clarity and length.

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Joe The Plumber, Congressman?

Ohio’s Joe the Plumber may challenge Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D, OH-9) in the 2012 election. You may remember him. His name isn’t really Joe, and he isn’t really a plumber, but he became famous in 2008 for asking presidential candidate Barack Obama questions about a tax bracket actually much higher than his own. Since then, Samuel Joseph “Joe” Wurzelbacher campaigned for failed presidential candidate John McCain and failed as both author and Internet foreign correspondent.

Joe’s book, like his biography and politics, is fiction. His political aspirations, however, are real — his greatest accomplishment to date is his recent election as one of only 400 Republican Party committee members in Ohio’s Lucas County (37,258 registered Republicans).