More than Half of the Members of Congress are Millionaires.
The median net worth for all House members was $896,000 (Democrats averaged $929,000 to Republicans’ $884,000) and, for Senators, $2.5 million. The median net worth for Senate Democrats was $1.7 million, down from $2.4 million in 2011; for Republicans: $2.9 million, up from $2.5 million in 2011.
Every Member of Congress represents almost 750,000 citizens. The Representative from Wyoming, the smallest state represents the fewest, only 576,000. Seven other States have just One Representative: North and South Dakota, Vermont, Alaska, Delaware and Montana. Montana has 1,005,000 citizens. Rhode Island with 1,050,000 citizens has 2 Representatives - or 1 for each of its 525,000 citizens.
Is it easier for a Millionaire to represent 750,000 citizens than for a common person to represent 50,000 or 100,000 in the Congress? Do we need more Millionaires in Congress or do we need more Representatives to represent the People of the United States of America?
Five States have 2 Representatives: Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Maine, Hawaii and Idaho. Those 2 Representatives represent from 525,000 citizens in Rhode Island to 798,000 citizens in Idaho. Three states, West Virginia, Nebraska and New Mexico have 3 Representatives and those representatives represent from 618,000 to 695,000 citizens each. The 27 representatives in New York represent 725,000 citizens. The 36 representatives from Texas represent 724,000 citizens and the 53 representatives in California represent 717,000 citizens. The worst representation is in the State of Oregon which has 5 Representives to represent 780,000 citizens each.
The Founders could have never imagined that the House of Representatives would not have been expanded for more than 100 years to reflect the growth in population. The First Proposed Amendment in the Bill of Rights set the number at a maximum of 50,000 citizens for each Congressional Representative!
"After the first enumeration required by the first article of the Constitution, there shall be one Representative for every thirty thousand, until the number shall amount to one hundred, after which the proportion shall be so regulated by Congress, that there shall be not less than one hundred Representatives, nor less than one Representative for every forty thousand persons, until the number of Representatives shall amount to two hundred; after which the proportion shall be so regulated by Congress, that there shall not be less than two hundred Representatives, nor more than one Representative for every fifty thousand persons."
Bill of Rights, Proposed Amendments
The National People's Congress is the largest Parliamentary body in the World. It is the legislative body of the People's Republic of China. The Parliament of the European Union has 751 members. The Indian Parliament has 545 members.
In the Federalist #58, titled, "Objection That The Number of Members Will Not Be Augmented as the Progress of Population Demands Considered", James Madison addressed the specific issue of the size of the Legislature, and began the Letter, by stating:
THE remaining charge against the House of Representatives, which I am to examine, is grounded on a supposition that the number of members will not be augmented from time to time, as the progress of population may demand. It has been admitted, that this objection, if well supported, would have great weight.
Madison expressed some concerns that a larger House of Representatives might be dominated by Passion over Reason. He noted that in large assemblies, a small group of leaders seemed to dominate the proceedings.
One observation, however, I must be permitted to add on this subject as claiming, in my judgment, a very serious attention. It is, that in all legislative assemblies the greater the number composing them may be, the fewer will be the men who will in fact direct their proceedings. In the first place, the more numerous an assembly may be, of whatever characters composed, the greater is known to be the ascendency of passion over reason. In the next place, the larger the number, the greater will be the proportion of members of limited information and of weak capacities.
Today's Millionaire's Club in the Congress is led by Representative Darrell Issa, with an estimated net worth of more than $450 Million Dolllars.
Just recently, the United Kingdom had an election for a new House of Parliament. The UK elected 650 Members of Parliament to represent 64.1 Million People. That is 1 Member of Parliament for each 98,615 people. By contrast, in the USA, we have 1 representative for approximately 750,000 people. It is rare for a citizen in the US to personally know their own representative.
Apportionment of Representatives is governed by 2 U.S.C. Section 2, passed in 1929, and amended subsequently. The Section refers to the 82nd Congress:
§2a. Reapportionment of Representatives; time and manner; existing decennial census figures as basis; statement by President; duty of clerk
(a) On the first day, or within one week thereafter, of the first regular session of the Eighty-second Congress and of each fifth Congress thereafter, the President shall transmit to the Congress a statement showing the whole number of persons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed, as ascertained under the seventeenth and each subsequent decennial census of the population, and the number of Representatives to which each State would be entitled under an apportionment of the then existing number of Representatives by the method known as the method of equal proportions, no State to receive less than one Member.
We are now in the 113th Congress! The census of the USA in 1920, when the Number of Representatives was set at 435 was 106 Million Persons. At that time, we had 1 Representative for each 243, 678 people in the USA. We have not had an increase in the number of Representatives since 1929!
The Electoral College was written into the United States Constitution with an expectation that the Number of Representatives would grow to represent the growing population! When you consider the original intent of the Founding Fathers, it is clear that their expectation was that each representative would represent no more than 50,000 or mayby 100,000 since the First Proposed Amendment was not approved. Certainly, nobody ever expected one representative to try to represent the interests of almost a Million people!