More at stake than presidency

By Don Klein

I don’t suppose anyone is still wondering why during this period of terrible economic consequences the very rich are still being allowed to benefit from the unjust Bush tax cuts. That’s because just about half the men and women we send to Congress are themselves millionaires.

Yes, the people of the United States are victimized in a double-barreled assault by the financially privileged. First, corporate funds have purchased the deportment of Congress which slips every benefit it can muster from tax breaks to economic exemptions and fiscal waivers, into legislation governing the rest of us in the country.

And secondly, when you are a rich man or woman with sworn authority to make law such as a legislator, you take lots of care to keep as much of your loot as possible by discouraging acts of fiscal fairness even at the disadvantage of the rest of the nation. It’s called greed, and that is the real political party most Congresspersons belong to.

As we recently learned the median income for members of the House of Representatives and the Senate now stands at $913,000 – more than five times their base government pay of $174,000. Some of them were rich before they were elected and others made their millions after taking office.

Even among the least wealthy, the members who are living on their base salary alone (and there are not too many of them), cannot relate to the 99 percent of the citizens in the country who are struggling from paycheck to paycheck if they are lucky to be working. To say Congress is out of synch with the rest of us on, say, unemployment benefits, food stamps and health costs is obvious.

Take Congressman Ed Pastor, as The New York Times reported. When he was elected to Congress he was like most of the rest of us with no more than $100,000 in the bank. The former high school teacher and miner’s son was locked firmly into the middle class, owing almost as much as he had in his bank balance

After two decades in Congress, Rep. Pastor is now a millionaire and sees nothing unusual about it. The Arizona congressman said he never relied on fancy stock investments to make money. He said the key to his good fortune was watching what he spends, paying off debts and, at age 68, collecting Social Security and a pension from his days as a county supervisor, The Times reported.

There are a number of conclusions that his story begs. First of all I like to see the math that can prove that by being frugal and paying off debts you can accumulate over a million dollars at his base salary, especially while maintaining two homes in Washington and Arizona.

I’d also like to know why a fully-active and fully-paid Congressman qualifies for Social Security when his base salary is more than four times that of the average American. It is a ripoff for person earning $174,000 a year to receive a government retirement safety net meant for needy citizens. Add to that the abomination that this influential person is also collecting a pension from his home county, while he is still sucking on the public teat in Washington.

Then he has the nerve to tell The Times, "I don’t see myself as a man of great wealth," he said. "To say that I’m enjoying a millionaire’s lifestyle — well, I can tell you, I guess a millionaire’s income doesn’t go very far these days."

If that is not astonishing gall it is only because that is the mind set of too many public servants who believe their first duty is not to their country or their constituents, but to their own pocketbooks. Too many run for public office not to do the public any good but to do themselves the best they can.

From the very early days of the republic, Congressmen were never drawn in large numbers from the poor. They cannot afford to run for office when their every waking moment is devoted to earning income for their families.

But in the early days there were rich, or at lest financially comfortable men, who had principles and public interest at heart. Rich or poor, in colonial days life was a struggle for all and the common good was easy to recognize. Not so today.

The millionaires and would-be millionaires of Congress are governed by their own avarice or the ability to be swayed by the money of others – usually large corporations – not to do the public good at all.

I can recall the shock of one Congressman just a year or so ago who apologized to British Petroleum for being so "badly treated" by regulatory agencies and the president after BP dumped millions of gallons of raw crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico to despoil the US coastal seashore.

We all know that many members of the House and Senate would dance on their toes like an awkward ballerina for the amusement of their corporate masters. Almost all end up as alleged "non-lobbyists," like former speaker Newt Gingrich for Fannie Mae at a fee of $1.6 million after he left office.

It is a conspiracy against the people that will never be punished because of the influence of money. There are too few men and women of principle left in Congress these days to affect real change.

So remember that when you go to the polls this November. It is not inconsequential who you send to Congress as your representative or your Senator. The election has a lot more to do with than just the presidency.