50 Wealthiest Members of Congress

Roll Call has published a list of the 50 wealthiest members of Congress. The wealthiest member of Congress is Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas), with net worth of $294,210,000. Yes, you read that right; over a quarter of a billion dollars. At the bottom of the list, in 50th place is Rep. Rosa DeLaura (D-Connecticut) worth a paltry $6,000,000. Why do I find any of this interesting? Because these are the people who are voting on tax policy, on job creation programs, and on a whole host of other measures that impact the vast majority of Americans who are worth far, far, far less than these members of Congress. So, next time Congress is voting on a measure to raise income taxes for the wealthy or cut benefits or entitlements for the poor, check out this list and see how these folks voted. Did they vote for the benefit of their constituents at large or did they vote their own self-interest?

And, just for fun, I thought it would be interesting to break the list down a bit.

Senate

Republicans (9): $104,000,000

Democrats (12): $561,930,000

House

Republicans (22): $802,460,000

Democrats (7): $150,530,000

Total

Republicans (31): $906,460,000

Democrats (19): $712,460,000

A few other quick observations about this list: 24% of Senate Democrats and 19% of Senate Republicans make the list. In the House, 13% of House Republicans and 4% of House Democrats make the list. Or, said differently, 21% of the Senate is worth a total of $665,930,000 and 7% of the House is worth $952,990,000 (less than $48 million short of the magical $1 billion mark).

Food for thought.