Congress Getting Rich as It Bleeds Us Into Poverty

Despite the awful state of the economy, one sector has been booming. Unsurprisingly, it’s the one that benefits at the expense of all the others, namely government:

Despite a long and deep recession, the collective personal wealth of congressional members increased by more than 16 percent between 2008 and 2009, according to a study released Wednesday by the Center for Responsive Politics.

The study — based on federal financial disclosure data released earlier this year — also found that more than half of all members — 261 — were millionaires.

About one in five of those had average calculated wealth in 2009 of at least $10 million. Eight of the 261 were in the $100 million-plus range.

Too bad not everybody can be a bureauweenie overlord:

In contrast, U.S. median household income dropped 3 percent to $50,221 between 2008 and 2009, the second straight decline, according to the Census Dept. In terms of millionaires, only about 1 percent of the overall population qualifies.

Even for those not in Congress, government work pays well:

The number of federal workers earning $150,000 or more a year has soared tenfold in the past five years and doubled since President Obama took office, a USA TODAY analysis finds.

Each one of these cushy positions bleeds the economy of wealth that in a free country would be used to create real jobs, employing people who do something of value for others and not requiring coercion.

Nothing could be more obvious, yet we desperately need another Ronaldus Maximus to say it again:

“In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem.”

On a tip from J. Cross-posted at Moonbattery.

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