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President Harry Truman once said “No young man should go into politics if he wants to get rich.” Maybe that was true once upon a time. Today, lots of people get rich in public service. We investigate some wealthy members of Congress— past and present. Some are self-made. For others— their road to riches is paved with controversy.
As we’ve fallen further into debt as a nation our members of Congress have collectively grown richer.
Baumgart: We found that 60 percent on average of members have grown their net worths upon arriving in Congress at a rate that is faster than the American public than the average household, members of Congress lost less money during the recession.
Alex Baumgart is a researcher at the watchdog Center for Responsive Politics. We asked him to crunch the latest financials for 435 members of the House of Representatives and 100 Senators. The richest member overall and for the past decade is car alarm mogul Congressman Darrell Issa whose net worth is estimated at more than $323-million dollars. Next is Democrat Jared Polis, a tech guru, at 308 million. The richest Senator is Democrat Mark Warner. He made a killing as a venture capitalist. And rounding out the Top Ten are: John Delaney, Dave Trott, Trey Hollingsworth, Don Beyer, Tom Rooney, Dianne Feinstein, and Chris Collins.
Watch the video and read the rest of the Full Measure investigation here:
http://fullmeasure.news/news/cover-story/rich-in-congress
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