(Here is my very first piece over at The Watchdog….)
-By Warner Todd Huston
A recent survey of the wealth of members of Congress revealed that, on average, it would take the combined wealth of 18 American households to equal the wealth of a single member of Congress. While this is an averaged statistic and individual cases vary, a review of the wealth of members of the Illinois delegation to Washington proves the rule rather than the exception.
The January report by OpenSecrets.org found that, “The median net worth of a member of Congress was $1,029,505 in 2013… compared with an average American household’s median net worth of $56,355.”
It is apropos to review what members of Congress are paid as they serve in Washington. Members of the House of Representatives are paid $174,000 a year, a salary that has been frozen in place since 2009. Speakers of the House and majority and minority leaders make a bit more than the average Congressman to befit their higher positions. Members of the House cannot collect a pension until they have served for five years, meaning they’d have to win election three times. Their pensions are never higher than 80 percent of their highest salary and is paid out at retirement age–unless they are still working somewhere in the federal government. In that case, they can’t collect a pension until they are no longer earning a federal salary.
So, what about Illinois? Well, the congressional salary itself certainly puts our representatives in a higher tax bracket than the average citizen of their state. According to information released by the U.S. Census, the median household income of the 13 million some citizens in Illinois is $56,777 annually. That is about 7 percent higher than the national average…
Read the rest at Watchdog Arena.
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Illinois’ House Reps Have More Wealth Than Average Member of Their Electorate”
Illinois’ 14th District Congressman, Randy Hultgren, is a co-sponsor of a bill to create a national Science Laureate. This position will be little else but a chance for Obama to push someone into the national debate that supports all his favorite, left-wing pseudo scientific ideas like global warming, abortion, so-called green energy, and anti-fracking policy ideas. Hultgren needs to be urged to remove his support for this bill.
We do a lot of carping on blogs and in the media about what our Representatives in Congress do, of course. But once in a while we should praise them when they get together and do something right.
The Illinois Republican Party held its 2012 Party Convention this weekend. On the docket was addressing some asked for rules changes and picking a slate of delegates to the GOP national convention to nominate Mitt Romney to carry the Party’s banner in the upcoming presidential election. My ultimate analysis is that this was a status quo convention, but signs show that the status quo might not be too long for this world.
Finally, in part four we’ll hear from two solid Illinois Congressmen, the 8th District’s Joe Walsh and Randy Hultgren of the 14th. We’ll also hear the, perhaps not startling results of the straw poll, the most important question from which was who Romney should pick for his vice presidential candidate (hint, the top picks weren’t any of his one-time rivals for the nomination).
For such a blue state, Illinois has some rather good Republicans in Congress, but on one issue many of them consistently fail. That is in their unfortunate support for Big Labor. The issue of Project Labor Agreements (PLAs) is a perfect example of this penchant to support issues dear to the hearts of Big Labor.
Denver, Colorado- 
I spoke to Rep. Joe Walsh in Lake Villa, Illinois this past weekend and one of his first questions to me was about running against Hultgren in the new 14th District. Obviously the question was weighing heavily on him that weekend.