Current US Congress is most despised, unproductive and least popular in history, but who cares, more members of Congress are millionaires than ever

Make the money, make the laws: Congress has more millionaires than ever - report
RT NEWS
January 09, 2014 

AFP photo/Mark Wilson

The most unproductive and least popular US Congress in history can count on another distinction: For the first time ever, most members of the Legislative Branch are millionaires.

At least 268 of the 534 current members of the 113th US Congress have an average net worth of US$1 million or more, according to personal financial disclosure data members registered last year on 2012 net worth, the Center for Responsive Politics reported Thursday.

In 2011, only 48 percent of members had a median net worth of at least $1 million. That number is just over 50 percent for 2012.

The median net worth in 2012 for the 530 current congressional members who were in Congress as of the May 2013 filing deadline was $1,008,767, up from $966,000 in 2011. The totals represent a 5.8 percent net-worth increase for all members.

Net worth for Republicans and Democrats went up 10.3 percent and 11.6 percent, respectively.

For all members of the House of Representatives, net worth increased 4.6 percent, from $896,000 to $856,000. House Democrats and Republicans both saw increases, at $929,000 and $884,000, respectively.

In the Senate, there was a 10.8 percent increase in net worth overall. Median net worth for all senators went up to $2.794 million from $2.5 million. For Senate Republicans, the median net worth went up to $2.9 million from $2.5 million. Senate Democrats, on the other hand, saw a decline, at $1.7 million from $2.4 million.

That decrease can be explained in part by wealthy senators no longer in the upper chamber. John Kerry, now Secretary of State, was the wealthiest member of the Senate in 2011, with a net worth of $248 million. Sen. Frank Lautenberg was worth $87.5 million before his death last year.

Republican Darrell Issa, chairman of the House Oversight Committee, is the richest member of Congress, with a net worth of $464 million in 2012.

Issa, who made his fortune in the car alarm business, had held the top spot for years before 2011, when fellow House Republican Michael McCaul reported a net worth of $500.6 million. For much of his wealth, McCaul can thank marrying the daughter of Clear Channel Communications Chairman Lowry Mays.

Yet McCaul’s reported wealth in 2012 went down to $143.1 million. The drop exemplifies a rule change the House adopted this year from the Senate in which members reporting high-value assets, income and liabilities that belong to spouses are only required to report that wealth as being worth “$1 million or more” on official filings. McCaul’s wife was reportedly worth over $50 million in his 2011 filings. In 2012, that amount was reported as a “spousal asset over $1 million” despite the likelihood that it is much more.

Though more members of Congress are millionaires than ever, and their median net worth is tops all-time, the total net worth for all lawmakers in 2012 actually fell to $3.9 billion from $4.2 billion in 2011.

The Center for Responsive Politics found that investing in the stock market, after declining for several years with congressional members, is again on the rise. More members invested in the top 50 stocks of 2012 than in 2011, with General Electric and Wells Fargo being the two most popular for investment.

Financial powers like Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase, among others, make up most of the top 10 congressional investments. Mutual funds and managed portfolios are also popular, based on good returns and the ability for members to avoid blatant conflicts of interest.

Pew Research Center reported in December that the 113th Congress (2013 to 2014) was the least productive Congress in its first year. Gallup reported in November that the 113th was the least popular Congress of all-time, with a 9 percent approval rating.

"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 for Responsive Politics. "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."

Even a 12 year old girl understands our scandalous banking system, why not the politicians?

‘They’re robbing us’: 12-year-old exposes Canada’s banking flaws, goes viral
RT NEWS
June 2, 2012


Twelve-year-old economist Victoria Grant and her mother Marcia talking to RT

Economists around the world are struggling to break free of the clutches of the financial crisis but a Canadian girl explains exactly what needs to be done.

Victoria Grant, 12, became an overnight Internet sensation after a video of her slamming Canada’s banks and the government for robbing the people, went viral.

“What I’ve discovered is that banks and the government have colluded to financially enslave the people of Canada,” she said at Pubic Banking Institute conference in Philadelphia.

In her interview with RT, the child economist expressed her concern that the Canadian government has been borrowing money from private banks and putting the people into debt. “And they are not doing anything about this. So they are just standing by and watching the private banks make us pay compounded interest.”

“It has become painfully obvious even for me, a 12-year-old Canadian, that we are being defrauded and robbed by the banking system and a complicit government,” Victoria stated in her speech at the conference.

Until the 1970s, the Canadian government borrowed money directly from the Bank of Canada. But in recent decades, it has been borrowing from private banks instead which results in the government paying extra in interest rates to cover private banks’ profit margins.

The prodigy’s solution to her country’s financial problems is that the government “should stop borrowing from private banks and start borrowing from the Bank of Canada with little to no interest.”

“The people will then pay fair taxes to repay the Bank of Canada. This tax money would in turn get injected back into our economic infrastructure and the debt would be wiped out. Canadians will again prosper with real money as the foundation of our economic structure,” she said.

Victoria’s mother, Marcia Grant, principal at the Resurrection Christian Academy, told RT that her daughter becoming an Internet sensation is “quite exciting.” “We never knew when this project started what would happen with this. It’s exciting that we get people talking and doing their own research. Whether they agree or disagree, they are at least listening and exploring.”

The U.S. Federal Reserve: What we Americans ought to know

10 Things That Every American Should Know About The Federal Reserve
The Economic Collapse
Thursday, February 9, 2012

The U.S. Federal Reserve, Credit: TheEconomicCollapse

What would happen if the Federal Reserve was shut down permanently? That is a question that CNBC asked recently, but unfortunately most Americans don't really think about the Fed much. Most Americans are content with believing that the Federal Reserve is just another stuffy government agency that sets our interest rates and that is watching out for the best interests of the American people. But that is not the case at all. The truth is that the Federal Reserve is a private banking cartel that has been designed to systematically destroy the value of our currency, drain the wealth of the American public and enslave the federal government to perpetually expanding debt. During this election year, the economy is the number one issue that voters are concerned about. But instead of endlessly blaming both political parties, the truth is that most of the blame should be placed at the feet of the Federal Reserve. The Federal Reserve has more power over the performance of the U.S. economy than anyone else does. The Federal Reserve controls the money supply, the Federal Reserve sets the interest rates and the Federal Reserve hands out bailouts to the big banks that absolutely dwarf anything that Congress ever did. If the American people are ever going to learn what is really going on with our economy, then it is absolutely imperative that they get educated about the Federal Reserve.

The following are 10 things that every American should know about the Federal Reserve.... [Click here to read them all]

Banking - Perhaps the Greatest Scam on Earth

Uploaded by BoKnowsEntertainment on Sep 11, 2011 (video courtesy & property of Bo)

The Greatest Scam on Earth - The Money Scam! The Money Scam is hidden right out in the open, yet buried in complication and confusion. A retired banker describes simply, the world's Money Scam and the reason every country is now going bankrupt. Private bankers have stolen the money creation process, and whereas once our money was created by the governments, debt-free, it is now created out of thin air and issued as debt with interest charges. In today's banker controlled world, money = debt, debt = slavery and therefore money = slavery --- our monetary systems have become systems of enslavement. Money is created out of nothing, issued as debt, not enough money is created for the future interest payments and inflation steals our savings. The money creation process should be taken away from the banks and given to the governments who can create money debt-free, interest-free. This is how it used to be done and we needed no income taxes. Finally, it is explained what we should do to stop supporting the money scam.

U.S. Screws Gaddafi and Libya`s Money

(Muammar Gaddafi and one of the US most profitable banks were firm financial friends in 2008)

Courtesy of RT News

Before the hostilities with Libya and Col. Gaddafi, Libya was a top international investor with an impressive portfolio with a top U.S. bank. Today, that fund is virtually empty and little remorse from the American bankers.

Long before the hostilities, everyone wanted to be Col. Gaddafi`s friend and get on the gravy train. According to RT News: Wall Street Journal reported that Goldman Sachs offered Gaddafi the chance of becoming a huge shareholder. But only after losing 98 per cent of Libya’s $1.3 billion sovereign-wealth fund in just a few months.

“They lost a staggering percentage. I do not know how you lose 98 per cent of something. It was a bet on options on European banks and energy companies whose stocks plunged shortly thereafter. But in any case, clearly they saw a goldmine in Gaddafi,” said Russ Backer, an investigative journalist.

When the fund, controlled by Colonel Gaddafi, nearly emptied, Goldman ponied up offers to recoup losses. According to the journal, Libya would get $5 billion worth of Goldman shares – in return for making a $3.7 billion investment in the securities firm. Libya agreed to buy the bank’s debt, but with a promise of a lucrative annual 6 per cent return for 20 years.

“Goldman knew it was about to head into a nosedive and there they were selling Libyans a piece of junk, which was themselves,” stated Greg Palast, an investigative journalist.

Libyan sovereign-wealth fund officials are reportedly accusing Goldman of misrepresenting investment deals and making trades without proper authorization. But others proudly admit playing fast and loose with Gaddafi’s money. American real estate and reality-show tycoon Donald Trump boasts that he lied to and deceived the Libyan leader in the past.

“I rented him a piece of land. He paid me more for one night than the land was worth for a year or two years, and then I didn't let him use the land. That's what we should be doing. I don't want to use the word 'screwed', but I screwed him,”boasted Donald Trump.

Now, critics say, the Libyan people stand to get screwed by Wall Street as the already are by NATO forces.

“Trump’s comments were very interesting in terms of the attitude that American executives and American officials have towards other countries. They are there to be screwed and Trump said it publicly, advocating it as a policy and having done it personally,” explained Danny Schechter, a journalist.

Goldman Sachs is currently being investigated for playing a major role in the 2008 financial crisis – a crisis that cost millions of Americans their jobs, homes and life savings. While a military conflict currently divides the US and Libya, uniting citizens of both countries is the financial gain Wall Street has made at their expense.

Conflict in LIbya: What is this War Really About?

Is this really about the 'people' in Libya as the world powers claim or something more we all are just not focusing on?

Read Ellen Brown`s piece: Libya: All About Oil or All About Banking?

Forward from InfoWars posting Ellen Brown`s article:

Note: As Ellen Brown writes in the following article, the war against Libya is not about Gaddafi’s treatment of protesters – it is about banking. Gaddafi refuses to play by the rules banksters impose on most of the rest of the world. Obama’s illegal war is also a continuation of the PNAC era plan to destroy Arab culture and force Muslims back into the stone age. Like Iraq before Bush Senior’s illegal invasion, Libya has an excellent health care system – thanks to its oil riches – and a remarkable civilian infrastructure for an African nation. Globalists and the neocon faction hate this and plan to turn Libya into a social and economic basket case like they did to Iraq, killing 1.5 million Iraqis in the process. The humanitarian chant we hear day in and day out in the corporate media is merely a thinly disguised pretense and cover for mass murder and destruction. –Kurt Nimmo

Read also Jack A. Smith`s article: The U.S.-NATO War Against Libya: America`s Fake Commitment to 'Democracy'

Excerpts:

...What's the real meaning of Operation Odyssey Dawn, the U.S. code name for this latest act of western military aggression against a small Muslim country? Why is Libya's leader, Col. Muammar Gaddafi, suddenly being used to deflect world attention from the uprisings to US-NATO support of "democracy" in Libya and the "rescue" of its people?"...The Obama Administration and its British and French allies are frantically attempting to construct a viable puppet opposition to the Libyan government while they attack loyalist regions following the March 17 UN Security Council decision to establish a no-fly zone over Libya..."Washington did not succeed in toppling the Gaddafi government [in the 1980s-90s] but Libya did indeed go through 'regime change.' The regime itself shifted its domestic and international policies. It moved steadily to the right. In the last decade, it has adopted a variety of neoliberal reforms, embraced and collaborated with the Bush administration’s so-called war on terror, increasingly exported Libyan resources to invest in Italian corporations and banks, while becoming politically friendly with Italy's right-wing government of Silvio Berlusconi, and opened Libyan oil business to BP...The well being of Libya's people measures 0.755, the highest in Africa and a bit higher that of the much wealthier oil kingdom of Saudi Arabia, which measures 0.752. Annual per capita income is about $15,000. Over the past 30 years, Libya has steadily increased its welfare programs and standards of living to graduate into the UN's "High Human Development” category, another first in Africa. Urban areas are fairly modern. Education and healthcare are free. Agriculture is subsidized. For lower income families the government subsidizes food, electricity, water, and transportation....Col. Gaddafi is the perfect target, having been demonized by the West for decades as an authoritarian, and at times displaying character traits suggesting megalomania and instability. The American people were indoctrinated to hate him many years ago, so U.S. public opinion was already prepared for regime change. It was the same with Iraqi President Saddam Hussein in 2003, or Yugoslav President Slobodan Miloseviç in 1999, among many others. Demonize first, exaggerate second, attack third...Then on April 3, longtime analyst Michel Chossudovsky wrote on the Global Research website:

"There are various factions within the Libyan opposition: Royalists, defectors from the Gaddafi regime including the Minister of Justice and more recently the Foreign Minister, Moussa Moussa, members of the Libyan Armed Forces, the National Front for the Salvation of Libya (NFSL) and the National Conference for the Libyan Opposition (NCLO) which acts as an umbrella organization.

"Rarely acknowledged by the Western media, the Libya Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG - Al-Jamaa al-Islamiyyah al-Muqatilah bi Libya), is an integral part of the Libyan Opposition. The LIGF, which is aligned with al-Qaeda, is in the frontline of the armed insurrection."

Chossudovsky, an Emeritus Professor of Economics at Ottawa University, and director of Montreal's Centre for Research on Globalization, notes that the paramilitary LIFG was founded in Afghanistan by veteran Libyan Mujahedeens of the Soviet-Afghan war.... There are contradictory reports as to whether the LIFG is part of Al Qaeda or is acting as an independent jihadist entity. One report suggests that in 2007 the LIFG became 'a subsidiary of al Qaeda, later assuming the name of Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM).'"

During its lifetime, "The LIFG was supported not only by the CIA and The British Secret Intelligence Service but also by factions within Libya's intelligence agency, led by former intelligence head and Foreign Minister Moussa Koussa, who defected to the United Kingdom in late March 2011." The full article is at http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=24096.

...US-NATO did not launch a war against Libya as a humanitarian gesture. If/when it removes the Gaddafi family from leadership and installs a replacement the allied military coalition will exercise decisive influence for many years to come, especially in oil concessions, privatizations and building contracts that enhance multinational corporations, air and military bases, a solid vote in the UN and other world organizations, and more.

Now did Gaddafi`s vision and plan of a Gold Dinar currency invite the U.S. and NATO to attack Libya? Possibly; lets remember Saddam announced Iraqi oil would be traded in euros instead of dollars and then the 2003 invasion occurred. Its not in the realm of possibility or imagination that the U.S. would of course would feel threatened, let alone the world bankers who really pull the strings and would rest power away from them. They just want a world that relies and relies only on the U.S. dollar for everything. Essentially there is nothing federal about the 'federal reserve' which really is a group of private bankers that 'loan money' to Uncle Sam and inevitably always in debt to them. Check the video by RT News concerning Gaddafi`s initiative on a gold-backed dinar currency that would trounce the dollar: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GuqZfaj34nc&feature=relmfu

Federal Reserve Bails Out "Foreign" Firms and Bad Banks

Is it a real surprise, the Federal Reserve doled out sweatheart deals to foreign multinational banks and corporations at a time when federal, state and local governments were nearly insolvent. Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders who tirelessly campaigned to get the Fed to release and make public the secret bailouts and backroom deals it did last year at the height of the recession. Now its coming to light as to why the Fed and the government wanted the info to remain a secret.

One most shocking revelation from the exposed deals is a $26 billion credit to a bank owned by the Libyan Central Bank, heres the kicker: this bank along with it`s two branches in NYC hasn`t come under U.S. sanctions just recently passed. The Fed gave out so much "emergency" loans and credit at near zero percent interest and here our Treasury Department vis a vis the American people have to borrow money at higher interest rates.

Just doesn`t seem why the suits in Washington don`t care in these matters and share the same view as Sanders. Probably the suits have the globalists` hands in their pockets and this isn`t a far cry fro the truth. Whenever Congress calls upon the Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Geithner (a Fed patsy), they just get a light grilling for show and their off. Congress has to wake up and smell whats going on, otherwise they are going to drive this nation down the drain inevitably and kill the future.

Read the articles:

Why is the Federal Reserve Propping up the Bank of Libya? - TheNation 3/31/2011

Foreign Banks Tapped Fed`s Secret Lifeline Most at Crisis Peak - Bloomberg 4/1/2011