Several members of Minnesota delegation are millionaires, none are the 1 percent
Wednesday, November 16, 2011 at 4:00 am
- 4 Comments
Though none qualify as the “one percent,” at least three of Minnesota’s members of Congress are millionaires, a study by the Center for Responsive Politics released on Tuesday shows.
The study averaged the net worth of each member. When members file their financial disclosure statements, they list assets and liabilities as part of minimum and maximum bet worth and CRP averaged those. For example, Sen. Amy Klobuchar reported a minimum net worth of $345,029 and a maximum of $1,104,000 for an average net worth of $724,512.
In Minnesota politics, the Republican members are much wealthier than the DFLers.
The wealthiest member of Minnesota’s delegation was Sen. Al Franken with an average net worth of $8,747,525 followed by Rep. Michele Bachmann at $1,783,508 and Rep. Chip Cravaack in 217th place with an average net worth of $1,391,551.
Those three were in the top half of Congress’ 535 members.
After Klobuchar’s $724,512 comes Rep. Erik Paulsen with an average net worth of $487,017, Rep. John Kline had $471,006, Rep. Collin Peterson had $263,005, Rep. Tim Walz with $247,502, and Rep. Betty McCollum with an average net worth of $88,005.
Rep. Keith Ellison had the lowest net worth, with negative $14,497.
The generally accepted cutoff for the top 1 percent of Americans in terms of net worth is about $9 million on 2010, a threshold that none of the Minnesota delegation report.
Eleven percent of Congress is in the top 1 percent in terms of net worth.
Follow Andy Birkey on Twitter4 Comments
Comment posted November 16, 2011 @ 11:52 pm
No one should be afraid of making money. How does Rep. Keith Ellison, who “had the lowest net worth, with negative $14,497″, feed himself? Is there some kind of tax deduction/ write-off involved? Will the Minnesota Independent report on that?
Comment posted November 17, 2011 @ 8:53 am
Dear Mick:
Thanks for your concern for the health and welfare of Rep. Ellison. Relax! When he gets hungry, he emails me and I send him lunch money.
Comment posted November 18, 2011 @ 10:20 am
Are y’all trolling much?
Blockheads; net worth and cash flow are not the same thing. Rep Ellison’s underwater on his mortgage.
Comment posted November 28, 2011 @ 5:44 pm
Anyone with a net worth more than a million dollars in my book can rightly be proclaimed as a member of the %1. Nothing says that this is bad, but it’s what is done to 1) acquire that wealth, 2) help those who are less fortunate and 3) how does this person view paying taxes and helping with their fair share of the tax burden that is a constant in the minds of those who make up the %99.
What should be done is a thorough auditing of the members of Congress and an audit of how the members of the Congress made their money. This is not an onerous task and one which should be undertaken for the purpose of showing the commitment that people have to serving the people rather then themselves at the feeding trough of public expense.
Should those in Congress not want to explain their sudden increase in wealth, it then becomes incumbent on the voters to send that senator or representative packing in the next election. Nothing about government service in either the House or Senate should be seen as a lifetime appointment to an exclusive club, which only the political class are able to enjoy.
The privileges which go along with a seat in either the House or Senate should not be a license to steal from the public, to entitle that person to a lifetime of health care, retirement benefits that any other person would dream of and a sense of honour and dignity above that wihich should be granted to one who is a member of those august bodies.
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