Harsh Reality: Half of Congress Are Millionairs and Don't Represent Most Americans
#1
Our nation purports to be a representative democracy, yet you don't find many plumbers, mineworkers, dirt farmers, Wal-Mart associates, roofers, beauty parlor operators, taxi drivers, or other "get-the-job-done" Americans among the 535 members of the U.S. House and Senate.

Chances are that their own members of Congress don't know any struggling and worried people, share nothing in common with them and can't relate to their real-life needs. Thus, Congress is content to play ideological games with such basics as health care, minimum wage, joblessness, food stamps and Social Security. The wealth divide has created a looming social and political crisis for America.

Mark Twain once said, "I'm opposed to millionaires, but it would be dangerous to offer me the position."

This widening chasm is not just a matter of wealth, but most significantly a literal separation of the privileged few from the experiences, needs and aspirations of the many who're struggling to make ends meet and worried that opportunities for their children to get ahead are no longer available to them.

Take, for example, Rep. Darrell Issa, with a net worth of $464 million last year. A far-right-wing California Republican, he has used his chairmanship of the powerful oversight committee to pound Obamacare's effort to provide health coverage for Americans who have been shut out of the system, even as he tried to unravel the new restraints to keep Wall Street bankers from wrecking our economy again. Issa and his ilk are proof that a lawmaker's net worth is strictly a financial measure, not any indication at all of one's actual value or "worthiness."

In short, the world in which our "representatives" live is light years from where the majority of people live, and the divide between the governors and the governees is especially stark for the 40 percent of people whose net worth is zero (or, technically, less than zero, since their income and other assets are far exceeded by their debts).

The harsh reality is that most Americans are no longer represented in Washington.

Redacted from a piece by Robert Reich............ http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politic...950228&t=4
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#2
(01-22-2014, 06:24 PM)Leonard Wrote: Our nation purports to be a representative democracy, yet you don't find many plumbers, mineworkers, dirt farmers, Wal-Mart associates, roofers, beauty parlor operators, taxi drivers, or other "get-the-job-done" Americans among the 535 members of the U.S. House and Senate.

Chances are that their own members of Congress don't know any struggling and worried people, share nothing in common with them and can't relate to their real-life needs. Thus, Congress is content to play ideological games with such basics as health care, minimum wage, joblessness, food stamps and Social Security. The wealth divide has created a looming social and political crisis for America.

Mark Twain once said, "I'm opposed to millionaires, but it would be dangerous to offer me the position."

This widening chasm is not just a matter of wealth, but most significantly a literal separation of the privileged few from the experiences, needs and aspirations of the many who're struggling to make ends meet and worried that opportunities for their children to get ahead are no longer available to them.

Take, for example, Rep. Darrell Issa, with a net worth of $464 million last year. A far-right-wing California Republican, he has used his chairmanship of the powerful oversight committee to pound Obamacare's effort to provide health coverage for Americans who have been shut out of the system, even as he tried to unravel the new restraints to keep Wall Street bankers from wrecking our economy again. Issa and his ilk are proof that a lawmaker's net worth is strictly a financial measure, not any indication at all of one's actual value or "worthiness."

In short, the world in which our "representatives" live is light years from where the majority of people live, and the divide between the governors and the governees is especially stark for the 40 percent of people whose net worth is zero (or, technically, less than zero, since their income and other assets are far exceeded by their debts).

The harsh reality is that most Americans are no longer represented in Washington.

Redacted from a piece by Robert Reich............ http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politic...950228&t=4

Robert Reich for president!
'Bout time we had a wee little guy peaking over the desk in the oval office.
And he may a wee little man but he has a enormous brain.
But…the Tea Party would run him out of the country before they would allow him to take office.

His piece above is a good one. Never one to pull a punch, he says it like it is.
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#3
You can *Like* him on Facebook Wonky. Big Grin

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Draft-Rob...6949062758
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