The 15 richest members of Congress

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   Stacie Lposted 9 years ago

   The 15 richest members of Congress
   
   Democrats making the list include former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and former presidential candidate John Kerry. But which Republicans hold the top two spots?
   
   By CNBC and Roll Call
   CNBC on MSN Money
   
   Mingling money and power
   
   Recently, Roll Call analyzed the financial assets of U.S. lawmakers, contained in the most recent mandatory annual disclosures, to determine which members of Congress have the highest approximate net worth.
   http://money.msn.com/investing/the-15-r … f-congress
   I'm not giving the answers...you'll just have to click the link and read for yourself....politics pays...or which came first...the money or the power to make the money?

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      Ralph Deedsposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      Interesting. Thanks.

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   Pcunixposted 9 years ago

   Well, if people ever understand that the rich guy is usually the last person you should ever vote for.. But no, that will never happen.
   
   People think the rich are smart.  Sometimes that is true.
   
   More often they are just  ruthless, nasty, uncaring and greedy.

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      yellowstone8750posted 9 years agoin reply to this

      What about Kucinich?

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         Pcunixposted 9 years agoin reply to this

         Good guy, I think, but a throwaway vote..

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            melbelposted 9 years agoin reply to this

            He's a good guy. Well, to me anyway. I was a volunteer on his presidential campaign in 2007/2008, but unfortunately he had very little $$ coming in, so we just didn't have the funding for signs and banners and the likes. We made what we could with Gimp. Then, when MSNBC photoshopped him out of their debate photograph, I knew it was pretty much over. He was the second one out of the primaries... right after Gravel. Ironically, in a poll of voters based strictly on their beliefs MOST were aligned with Gravel, yet he was the first out.
            
            After Kucinich was out and Nader announced his run, we got a Nader sign. Our pizza delivery guy was spitting mad at us over the sign... he was seriously shaking. (None of his business, really.) He handed me the pizza and receipt to sign (it was cc over the net) he says, "Share the wealth, right?" (in reference to my raging socialism, I'm sure) and I said, "Yep!" and x'ed out the tip line. I figured if he wanted more money, he could have me taxed for it (or not be an *ssh*le to his customer.)

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               Pcunixposted 9 years agoin reply to this

               Isn't it amazing that it's the people at the bottom of the pile who are often the silliest about taxes?
               
               When I was in my peak earning years I was probably *paying* more taxes than what a guy like that could hope to earn as his whole salary for a year and yet he's the one sputtering mad over taxes.
               
               Oh, well. You can't get through to them.  I wrote about welfare recently and got comments like "I grew up poor and we never had welfare and I turned out fine!" - that's supposed to be an argument against taxes and the awful "redistribution" they hate so much.
               
               The other argument is that everything would be fine if we just left business alone.  Ayup - it's regulations on business that cause poverty!  Let them pollute, let them mistreat and underpay employees, make unions illegal, scrap all those occupational safety laws, don't do any oversight of their accounting, definitely never tax them in any way, let them be monopolies if they can be and we'd have a grand and glorious country!
               
               Sometimes I really think it's not so much a cultural divide as an intelligence divide.  Not politically correct to say so, but it's really hard to have any respect at all for that kind of so-called "thinking".

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                  yellowstone8750posted 9 years agoin reply to this

                  Intelligence divide...I like that!

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            yellowstone8750posted 9 years agoin reply to this

            Without a third party to dissolve the electoral college I agree.

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               melbelposted 9 years agoin reply to this

               +1
               
               If, for some reason, the entire US came to me and said, "You get to change everything and have it exactly the way you think it should be", the first thing I would change is how our elections are set up. I'm not just talking about the electoral college, the two-party system, but seriously the whole thing is effed up.
               
               For example, I think it was Microsoft who developed the software we now use to count votes. And Microsoft themselves, known purveyors of close-sourced software, said that this particular piece of software is NOT secure enough for something like our national elections and SHOULD NOT be used as such. But yeah, electoral college... first on my list.

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   Daniel Carterposted 9 years ago

   The rich seem to put the rich in office. How else are campaigns financed and elections won? Seems to be a club. Hence, I doubt that very many average American's views/rights are really being addressed and protected. There may be exceptions, but I think as a rule, this where the US is at present.
   
   Hence the incredible dissatisfaction with splinter groups like the Tea Party and Occupy movements. This barbecue is just warming up, I believe.

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   habeeposted 9 years ago

   I know Kerry used to hold the #1 spot. McCain used to be on that list. Wonder what happened?

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   Moderndayslaveposted 9 years ago

   It takes money to steal money.

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   Stacie Lposted 9 years ago

   It seems inherently wrong to have the rich and powerful in charge...

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