You Must Be Kidding Me… GOP Pissed Because a Member of Congress is a Millionaire?

Posted by Michael Bryan

I can't tell you how funny I find the GOP latest manufactured outrage. Seems several rightwing commenters are shocked… shocked, I say… to find that a Democratic Member of Congress has a net worth of a million dollars. Frankly, I thought that most GOPers simply considered a high net-worth a pre-requisite for the office.

The target of their outrage? Rep. Ed Pastor.

Never mind that a more balanced view of the report they draw their information from actually looks at the net worth of all Members. And never mind that the net worth of some Members of the Arizona delegation dwarf that of Rep. Pastor ($1,072,005).

The top 3? All Republicans:

1. Trent Franks: $33,925,002
2. John McCain: $16,017,639
3. David Schweikert: $6,165,011

Odd how neither Sonoran Alliance nor Espresso Pudit wrote anything about that. In fact, Espresso Pundit seems to suggest that Pastor is the wealthiest by writing "The New York Times sheds some light on Congressional Millionaires starting with Arizona's own Ed Pastor." Why does one 'start' with Ed Pastor when he's the fourth guy on the list? Because he's the first Democrat on the list.

Sonoran Alliance even alleges that Pastor has 'become an elitist'! How unintentionally funny is that!?

"Although he was born in a small mining town, he’s adopted the left’s position on policy and class warfare. In essence, he’s become an elitist."

Apparently, if you were born to modest circumstances and have a Hispanic surname, it is 'elitist' of you to work hard and achieve the American Dream of financial security.

I thought that the GOP supported, venerated even, the American Dream. Work hard. Save your pennies. Get rich. Live the good life. I guess that's only for Wall Street banksters who gamble with other people's money and socialize the losses. No, if you had the bad taste to be born Hispanic and working class, you had best stay that way.

Rep. Pastor got rich the old fashioned way. He and his wife worked hard to earn a good salary, invested it wisely, and got rich slowly by living frugally. His net worth consists of his and his wife's retirement accounts, savings and annuities, and his home. His income consists of his salary and his and his wife's modest pension benefits from a career as hard-working public servant.

In almost every way Pastor is an example of a what a hard-working and frugal American can accomplish given the good fortune of a well-paying job, which is being lost due to the policies our compliant corporate-beholden Congress have pursued. Yet the GOP wants to tear him down and embarrass him for it.

If Mr. Pastor has anything to be embarrassed about, it is that the institution of which he is member has abandoned working Americans in favor of the agenda of the 1%. Mr. Pastor should be proud that he, at least, has consistently stood against that agenda and worked for interests of real working Americans.

What did the GOP Members in Arizona's delegation do for their money? Well, in the case of Mr. Franks and Mr. McCain, they married it. In the case of Mr. Schweikert, he got it from the misery of foreclosed and underwater homeowners. Very Republican, indeed.