The 50 richest members of Congress

link here

How did Trent Franks (R-AZ) get so rich? He's #22 and according to this he's worth about $11.6 million. I remember back in the 80s we used to make fun of his cheesy campaign signs when he ran for the state legislature.

Rich people are frequently cheap.

The real question is not who's rich in Congress, but when did they become rich and how did they get that money? If they got rich after they were elected, I'd be suspicious of how they got their money.

Yeah, that just really doesn't look right. "Public servant" my ass. Sign me up!

Jay Rockefeller, as the name might suggest, comes from family money.

IIRC, several on that list like John Kerry got wealthy because they married wealthy women.

John Kerry has been married to two different wealthy women.

Remember the joke from 2004?

"John Kerry has a fundraiser every time he gets into bed........"

Why be suspicious? It's not like insider trading laws apply to Congress. I'm not being sarcastic, either; Congress is specifically exempt.

Wow, really? Thank you oh so much for that tid bit of information. The next thing you'll be telling us is that grass is green and the sky is blue.

There are 1,426 Americans with the last name "Rockefeller." Did you assume they were (A) all related and (B) all wealthy?

Oh my gosh, I did. Wow, Margaret, you are so smart. Nobody can compete with your intelligence and intellect. This forum is so much better off having your presence here to provide all of us little people with a proper education.

How did the stock market do today? Any suggestions? After all you are a financial success and make great recommendations to the rest of us as to how we should spend and invest our money.

The odds say the democrat from WV would NOT be wealthy.

Interesting that only a few on that list have top-level national profiles.

I'd be quite interested to see the other end: how much do the poorest 50 in Congress have?

She was your first love, wasn’t she? Treated you terribly, ultimately jilted you, yet you still carry her torch, poor boy. It’s why you can’t stop saying her name.

If you truly are interested in the FTSE, you’d have to speak with my solicitor. He handles that sort of thing for me.


As for the Rockefellers, I rather admired them, despite the latter generations’ tendency toward liberalism. So elegant, for the most part; not your typical nouveaux riches.

According to Wikipedia, here are the top three:

There's no connection, BTW, between Kerry's mother's family and Forbes magazine. And Jay Rockefeller, has family money, obviously. So nothing fishy for the first four.

Shouldn't be too difficult to find out. IIRC, the poorest is a Tea Party member who's actually 300K in the hole...