Those fitlthy rich Republicans..!!

[langeweile]

The richest members of Congress are:

Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) still leads the pack, despite the fact that estimates of his wife's ketchup fortune took a dip, it fell from $675 million to $620 million.

Sen. Jon Corzine (D-N.J.) comes in second, he made his $400 million dollar fortune through a stock scheme at Goldman & Sachs.

Sen. Herb Kohl (D-Wis.), worth roughly $300 million.

Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.), worth approximately $200 million.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), with an estimated $50 million.

Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), worth $40 million.

Sen. John Edwards (D-N.C.), worth $25 million.

Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.), worth $25 million.

Somehow this doesn't fit the picture...

 

[oldjones]

Whao are all those people, and why should we/why do you care about them?

 

[newguy27]

Nice work. The Dems keep painting themselves as the working class joes but they are the so -called "elite". Just look at HOllywood celebs pushing the Dem ticket. NO wonder they lost contact with middle America.

 

[lenharper]

I think it reassuring that the democrats seem to know how to manage their money.

 

[papasmerf]

I think it reassuring that the democrats seem to know how to manage their money.

No problem managing it when yo can vote yourself a raise and exemptions

 

[Don]

Whao are all those people, and why should we/why do you care about them?

They are very promenant members of the US Senate and very powerful (and rich) people. If a party has control over the Senate, it is much easier to push their agenda. Thus people care who they are, even outside of the US since the US is so influential that whatever they do will be felt all over the world. It also shows how the Senators tend to be from the rich elite out of touch with the common man.

 

[happygrump]

No problem managing it when yo can vote yourself a raise and exemptions

Maybe I missed something here... but don't the Rs control Congress and the Senate?

 

[Asterix]

Great post lang. From now on we'll simply refer to them as those filthy Republicans. Better?

 

[papasmerf]

Great post lang. From now on we'll simply refer to them as those filthy Republicans. Better?

Ok and we can call the others the deceitfull democrats.

 

[WoodPeckr]

Welcome to the Alien (<>..<>) World of langeweile

The richest members of Congress are:

Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) still leads the pack, despite the fact that estimates of his wife's ketchup fortune took a dip, it fell from $675 million to $620 million.

Sen. Jon Corzine (D-N.J.) comes in second, he made his $400 million dollar fortune through a stock scheme at Goldman & Sachs.

Sen. Herb Kohl (D-Wis.), worth roughly $300 million.

Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.), worth approximately $200 million.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), with an estimated $50 million.

Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), worth $40 million.

Sen. John Edwards (D-N.C.), worth $25 million.

Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.), worth $25 million.
Somehow this doesn't fit the picture...

LOL!!!!!

What's the point?

You, as usual, paint a strange picture.

You list 8 Dem senators out of 100 who obviously know how to manage money, unlike the GOPers in charge now who can't.
Plus the GOP can't seem to even keep track of where that money is being spent!
Dems are the minority party and at least these 8 still did well, as did Clinton when he was in contol.
GOPers took over both Congress & the WH (they run to whole show now) led by 'W', Cheney, et al., and basically everything these clowns touch turns into Texas Longhorn Bull Manure!
These are the same GOP goofballs who said they were going to bring 'fiscal responsibilty' back when they are in charge!!?!?!?.......yeah right!

So it looks like 8 Dems still managed to do well as the minority, while the GOP MAJORITY in control, just fell in their own BS & lost billions & billions!!!

You just keep popping those OxyContins lang, if it makes it easier for you to swallow that BS........

 

[Don]

LOL!!!!!

What's the point?

You, as usual, paint a strange picture.

You list 8 Dem senators out of 100 who obviously know how to manage money, unlike the GOPers in charge now who can't.
Plus the GOP can't seem to even keep track of where that money is being spent!
Dems are the minority party and at least these 8 still did well, as did Clinton when he was in contol.
GOPers took over both Congress & the WH (they run to whole show now) led by 'W', Cheney, et al., and basically everything these clowns touch turns into Texas Longhorn Bull Manure!
These are the same GOP goofballs who said they were going to bring 'fiscal responsibilty' back when they are in charge!!?!?!?.......yeah right!

So it looks like 8 Dems still managed to do well as the minority, while the GOP MAJORITY in control, just fell in their own BS & lost billions & billions!!!

You just keep popping those OxyContins lang, if it makes it easier for you to swallow that BS........

So I guess you agree that the Democrats are a party of the wealthy elite

 

[Asterix]

Really, this is silly. Why don't we look instead at the incredible increase in recent years, spent by both parties for elections. Whether it comes from a candidate's own assets, or is donated by the moneyed few, it is still elitist, and by nature unrepresenting of most people. Free speech becomes bought speech.

 

[WoodPeckr]

So I guess you agree that the Democrats are a party of the wealthy elite

Not at all.
These are just 8 Dems.
The wealthy elite was and always will be in the GOP, where the GOP is used as the tools, pawns, puppets of business and the RICH, their wealth by far surpasses those 8 Dem senators.

The GOP is the party of big money, they just don't manage it well.

Have always believed the GOP can best be defined as basically a party of whores willing to do anything for a buck!....the people are merely a means to that end, making a buck!

 

[Don]

All I know is that those 8 Democrats have more money combined then the rest of the other 92 combined including all 54 (or whatever the number is) GOP senators.

Anyway it is kinda pointless. They are ALL F**KING RICH. They are all (ok, most) greedy. The GOP is more friends of big business. But both Republicans and Democrats are in the rich elite. BOTH of 'em! Neither one in power is really that in touch with the common man.

 

[Asterix]

All I know is that those 8 Democrats have more money combined then the rest of the other 92 combined including all 54 (or whatever the number is) GOP senators.

Anyway it is kinda pointless. They are ALL F**KING RICH. They are all (ok, most) greedy. The GOP is more friends of big business. But both Republicans and Democrats are in the rich elite. BOTH of 'em! Neither one in power is really that in touch with the common man.

Ditto, and pretty much what I posted above.

 

[Truncador]

Really, this is silly.

No, it isn't. It reveals something extremely important about the nature of the Left in America. To put in terms I learned back when I used to be a Communist years ago, they represent that fraction of the bourgeois ruling class which assumes an aristocratic as opposed to strictly bourgeois ideological class position. They, unlike the proletariat, don't despise capitalists as oppressors and bosses, but as upstarts and usurpers. Put more simply, they see new money (and the middle class in general) as uncouth and ever-so-vulgar, and themselves as protectors of the poor insofar as they see themselves as America's rightful patricians.

 

[Asterix]

No, it isn't. It reveals something extremely important about the nature of the Left in America. To put in terms I learned back when I used to be a Communist years ago...

Once a communist. Well that says alot about how you approach your political thought now. Personally, I've never been much of a true believer. I've always fallen somewhere between Eric Hofer and the old line by Groucho Marx, that I wouldn't want to belong to any group that would have someone like me as a member. Even as a kid I think I understood that to accept a certain view as absolute, meant you had decided to stop thinking. At eight years old I remember being afraid that my parents might find out I wasn't too convinced about the whole religion thing, but I digress.

It is silly, to pretend that either party, now formed at least on a natiional level, are in any way truly looking out for the interests of the common people. Their hands are too deep into the money pots. Most often, all of this is more of a distraction, to satiate our desire to root for our team, when in reality the differences are negligible.

 

[WoodPeckr]

No, it isn't. It reveals something extremely important about the nature of the Left in America. To put in terms I learned back when I used to be a Communist years ago,

So you got conned into being a commie. I never fell for their con even though it was trendy during my university years but then there were events that made me think the commies weren't all the utopia they claimed to be, namely the Viet Nam War & the 'flower power'/peace movement. Looks like you were looking for someone to follow, maybe still are. I was never a follower, more a radical independent thinker, kinda like those that revolted from England back in the 1770's, against those tories, conservatives, then that only cared about keeping their lucrative contracts with King George III. Always looked things over then decided my own choices.

The left in America has about as much in common with the Communists as the right has with Hitler's Fascist Third Reich......only the lunatic fringes who can't think but only want to follow a cause embrace the far right & left positions.

As far as DEMS & GOP go, every election I've seen has come down to the choice between the lesser of two evils. Both are badly flawed, corrupt and evil and the most corrupt has to go hands down to the GOP, although the DEMS are closing that gap. Historically Big Business & Money always backed and corrupted/owned the GOP but lately these two interests have been supporting the DEMS also. Their thinking is we got the $$$$$ so we will give to both sides that way they own whomever wins.

Historically the DEMS looked out for the common people while the GOP looked out for the well-to-do with both having their own peculiar forms of 'welfare' which defines them best.
DEMS offer welfare to the poor.
GOP offer welfare to the rich.

Plutocracy is where the USA is heading as democracy fades away. Powerful special interests, corporate, banking, oil, MIC, etc., are increasing control and setting policy in the USA to their benefit and not the people. In fact these special interests are getting better treatment and protection from our constitution and courts, than the people who were originally meant to be protected by it. The recent Supreme Court decision allowing your house to be taken from you under the guise of 'local corporate development' only shows this drift towards Corporatism trumping people's rights.

 

[Don]

DEMS offer welfare to the poor.
GOP offer welfare to the rich.

Partially true. The GOP actually support more spending of welfare than the Dems, believe it or not. There is a reason why rural America likes the GOP and it isn't only because they are more conservative. The US gov't spends something like 3 billion a year on farm subsidies, mainly backed by the GOP. It's basically welfare for farmers. However I should mention that while back in the day it benefitted poor farmers greatly, the days of the individual farm owner is shrinking (they are bought out by these big agricultural firms) so more and more subsidies are not going to the intended target. I think that is the overall problem with welfare - it has a useful purpose initially but gets broken along the way as the system gets bigger and becomes ineffective when you look at money going in to money helping the people who really need it.

Any I look at it as:
DEMS offer welfare to the poor urban centers
GOP offer welfare to the rural areas

It helps expain (along with other factors) why the GOP owns the rural areas and the DEMS own the cities

 

[WoodPeckr]

Don,
Like you said farm subsidies, mainly welfare for farmers started out well intentioned but now go mainly to big agricultural corporate firms thus it was transformed to welfare for the rich. Then there were the tobacco subsidies which never made sense other than being blatant political pandering by both parties for votes. These should have been eliminated a long time ago.

Government welfare be it for the rich or poor takes many forms, be it outrignt grants, tax breaks, tax exemptions, aid, subsidies, perks, allowances, price supports, preferential treatments, no-bid contracts, favorable depreciation tables for industry or business, or whatever you want to call it, it is still a gift someone is getting that they didn't receive in the past. It will still have to be paid for by someone else or just put on the tab for the next generation to pick up.