Clear and present Congressional Conflicts of Interest

Liberals, Conservatives on the public payroll rich, enriching themselves

Editing, minor comment by Carolyn Bennett

One percent, roughly, of Americans at large are millionaires.

Sixty percent of the newly seated members of the U.S. Senate — and more than 40 percent of the newly seated members of the U.S. House of Representatives — are millionaires.

“Even though millions of Americans continue to struggle financially,” a Center for Responsive Politics analysis reports, most of the United States’ newest “congressional representatives are a world away from those constituents’ financial realities.”

The “median estimated wealth for Senate freshmen is $3.96 million,” according to the Center’s calculations. “For House freshmen, the median estimated wealth is $570,418.”

Can Congress regulate, legislate fairly in the public interest private interests it owns and owes?

The Center for Responsive Politics reports the 112^th Congress’s popular Blue chip, oil company investment — “New members’ favorite assets include stock staples popular with Congress at large: 

General Electric (17 new members invested), Bank of America (11) and AT and T, Cisco Systems, Johnson and Johnson, Microsoft and Proctor and Gamble (each 9). 

Coca-Cola ties PepsiCo with seven freshmen investors each, while ExxonMobil (7), edges ConocoPhillips (6) and BP (5) among oil companies. 

Health care reform aside — freshman (seven of them)  reported assets in drug maker Merck; seven more disclosed investments in Pfizer; six listed investments in CVS/Caremark; four are investors in Bristol-Myers Squibb. 

In banking and finance — JPMorgan Chase (7 of the newly seated members), Charles Schwab and Co. (6), Wells Fargo (6), Citigroup (5), and Goldman Sachs (4).”

[Financial collapse culprit] “Citigroup is notable among new member assets because of the potential amount of money freshmen lawmakers have collectively invested in it — somewhere between $1.01 million and $5.05 million.…  Only Proctor and Gamble and Wells Fargo also have the possibility of cracking the $1 million mark.”

U.S. law requires members of Congress only to report their assets and liabilities in broad ranges. Therefore, it is “impossible to determine precisely how much value their assets are worth, or have gained or lost.”  

However, according to the Center’s calculations, “the full freshman class of the 112th Congress has an estimated wealth of $533.1 million, with a minimum net worth of about $221 million and a maximum net worth of about $845.2 million. This group includes former members of Congress who, after being out of Congress for varying lengths of time, again won election.

Some [of these rich public servants] are “Democrats.” Some are “Republicans.” Many are “Tea-Party conservatives.” Others are “unabashedly liberal.”

“What unites these freshmen is that, on balance, they are rich.’”

Sources notes

“Freshmen in 112th Congress Exceedingly Wealthy Despite Struggling National Economy” (Open Secrets Blog, March 9, 2011,

http://www.opensecrets.org/news/2011/03/as-a-class-congressional-freshmen-e.html#

Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) — average estimated wealth $94.87 million

Followed by seven House freshmen with average calculated wealth somewhere between $22.1 million and $49.4 million

•    Diane Lynn Black (R-Tenn.), $49.4 million

•    Rick Berg (R-N.D.), $39.2 million

•    Blake Farenthold (R-Texas), $35.8 million

•    Scott Rigell (R-Va.), $29.9 million

•    James Renacci (R-Ohio), $28.4 million

•    Steve Pearce (R-N.M.), $23.2 million

•    Richard Hanna (R-N.Y.), $22.1 million

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