Tier V Unemplyment: Lawmakers Didn’t Lose A Dime In 2009

By Victor Hatley on September 2, 2010, 11:16 am

The 50 Congressmen (and women) having the biggest bank accounts have a combined net worth of nearly $1.4 billion…that’s right, billion. According to an annual review that the politico “The Hill,” published, for the second year in a row Senator John Kerry (D-Mass.) takes the high spot with a whopping $188.6 million in assets and cash at the end of 2009. This disclosure also shows that the Senator’s balance is up by $20 million from 2008.

Some Came With Their Own Money

There are those with money in the family, like the Kennedys. And those that have their money through spousal relationships, like much of Senator Kerry’s wealth came from his wife Teresa Kerry, daughter of Senator John Heinz who owned the Heinz ketchup fortune. Senator Herb Kohl (D-Wis.) is by far one of the richest men in Congress. He owns the NBA’s Milwaukee Bucks, and is worth a reported $254 million, but due to the method used to calculate the disclosures, the team only counts for $50 million in assets.

Many Showing Less Assets

The figures were calculated using the 2009 financial disclosures, which only a broad range to be reported, (a $2 million vacation home could be listed as between $1 and $5 million,) and taking the smaller number, then they subtract the liabilities on the books. But many lawmakers paid off large debts last year, and in this manner many of our legislators may show much less than they had last year. Some, like Senator Kohl, can even show that he is $4.6 million in the hole.

 

Runaway Executive Salaries

We ask these lawmakers to correct the issue on Wall Street of corporate CEO’s ever upward spiraling salaries, but to what avail. They themselves are engaged in just the activity that we are asking them to curb. The financial Reform Act has a provision in it that would stop this, but if you look at the British equivalent of this law, enacted in 2002 in the U.K., the provision wont help.

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