If the pending tax reform bill on Capitol Hill favors millionaires, then many members of Congress may quietly be all in.
Two years ago, data was published that showed a majority of House and Senate members had reached the heights of millionaire status.
According to a leading nonpartisan watchdog group, the Center for Responsive Politics, about one percent of all Americans are millionaires but, for members of Congress, wealth is the norm.
The group’s website (opensecrets.org) published data in 2015 that showed the median net worth of Senate Republicans rose annually by 13 percent, from $2.9 million to $3.3 million, and the Senate Democrats benefited by 9 percent – double the 4.5 percent increase in combined net worth of U.S. households in 2015.
In addition, some evidence indicates that the compromise tax bill taking shape in Congress specifically benefits many lawmakers’ personal investments.
A year earlier, the Center analyzed the personal financial disclosure data from 2012 of the 534 then-members of Congress and found that, for the first time, more than half had an average net worth of $1 million or more. Yet, the stereotype of “rich Republicans” is a misnomer.
The richest members were Congressman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), $330 million; Congressman Jared Polis (D-Colo.), $313 million; Sen. Mark Warner, (D-Va.), $238 million; and Congressman John Delaney (D-Md.), $232 million.
Overall, lawmakers perhaps looking to cash in by adopting tax reforms are not universally rich.
When Michigan Congressman David Trott, a Birmingham Republican, took office in 2013 his net worth was estimated by the Center at $200 million. Some 2 ½ years later, Trott abruptly announced that he had had his fill with Capitol Hill and would be stepping down from the House at the end of his term in December 2018.
Trott’s riches eventually ranked slightly above the wealth of California’s two most prominent female Democratic lawmakers, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Sen. Dianne Feinstein. Both are adamantly opposed to the tax proposals currently under consideration in Congress.
So, the perceived self-interests among individual members of the House and Senate, as the debate over tax cuts/reform legislation nears its final days, may be based on just how cynical you are.
