A month ago, we showed a chart of median household income in the US versus that just in the District of Columbia. The punchline wrote itself: "what's bad for America is good for Washington, D.C."

Today we got official verification that Bernanke's wealth transfer in addition to benefitting the richest 1%, primarily those dealing with financial assets, also led to a material increase in the wealth of one particular subgroup of the US population: its politicians.

According to the OpenSecrets blog which conveniently tracks the wealth of America's proud recipients of lobbying dollars, aka Congress, for the first time ever the majority of America's lawmakers are worth more than $1 million.

Specifically, of 534 current members of Congress, at least 268 had an average net worth of $1 million or more in 2012, according to disclosures filed last year by all members of Congress and candidates. The median net worth for the 530 current lawmakers who were in Congress as of the May filing deadline was $1,008,767 -- an increase from last year when it was $966,000. In addition, at least one of the members elected since then, Rep. Katherine Clark (D-Mass.), is a millionaire, according to forms she filed as a candidate. (There is currently one vacancy in Congress.)

Last year only 257 members, or about 48 percent of lawmakers, had a median net worth of at least $1 million.

Because who better to debate the class divide raging across the US thanks to the Federal Reserve's $4+ trillion balance sheet than a room full of millionaires. On the other hand, perhaps it means they will be less bribable by "donations" and other lobbying funding...

... Yeah, we LOLed at that one too.

OpenSecrets was about as cynical as us: "Members of Congress have long been far wealthier than the typical American, but the fact that now a majority of members -- albeit just a hair over 50 percent -- are millionaires represents a watershed moment at a time when lawmakers are debating issues like unemployment benefits, food stamps and the minimum wage, which affect people with far fewer resources, as well as considering an overhaul of the tax code."

"Despite the fact that polls show how dissatisfied Americans are with Congress overall, there's been no change in our appetite to elect affluent politicians to represent our concerns in Washington, said Sheila Krumholz, executive director of the Center. "Of course, it's undeniable that in our electoral system, candidates need access to wealth to run financially viable campaigns, and the most successful fundraisers are politicians who swim in those circles to begin with."

Perhaps one could argue that a country drowning in poverty needs politicians who actually know the troubles that afflict the majority of the population first hand. Actually, according to folklore that is the Democrat party. So it may come as a surprise to some that the median net worth of the average Democrat at $1.1 million (an increase of 11.6% from 2011) is higher than that of any given Republican at just over $1 million, an increase of 10.3% from the prior year.

CONTINUE READING

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-01-09/first-time-ever-most-members-congress-are-millionaires