HUFFINGTON
08.05.12
CAPITOL HILL
can still be a ticket to the good life
if you play the game right.
BILL CLARK/ROLL CALL
THE MILLIONAIRES CLUB
Among the arguments for giving
congresspeople relatively generous
salaries is that they need the money to maintain residences in Washington and their home districts,
without having to rely on integritycompromising side income.
“That’s good money, but it’s also
really expensive on Capitol Hill,”
said Brendan Steinhauser, a campaign organizer for FreedomWorks,
a Tea Party-oriented group, about
congressional salaries.
This rationale is strained, however, by the reality of life on Capitol
Hill these days: Congress is rich.
Nearly half of the current crop of
federal lawmakers are millionaires,
and their median net worth has risen 13 percent since 2008, according
to the Center for Responsive Politics’ analysis of financial disclosure
forms. Meanwhile, the median net
worth of U.S. households fell 35
percent from 2007 to 2010, according to the Census Bureau.
The reason Congress has become stuffed with rich folks, analysts say, is that the cost of political campaigning has soared.
“It’s very simple,” says Jim
Manley, who worked as a Democratic congressional staffer for 21
years before joining a public relations firm last year. “If you are
going to slash members’ pay you
are soon only going to see the very
wealthy or the incompetent run—
and we already have enough of
both right now in Congress.”
Others agree that the cost of
campaigns is larding Congress
with millionaires, but not necessarily that the barriers to entry
justify the compensation.
“Campaigns have become so taxing we elect millionaires,” says Public Citizen’s Craig Holman. “That’s
where the rationale [for the current
compensation scheme] falls apart.”
Another argument for paying
lawmakers well is that they shoul-
Rep. Steve
King (R-Iowa),
seated, shakes
hands with Rep.
Sean Duffy
(R-Wisc.)
ahead of their
2011 news
conference
on Obama’s
stimulus
package.