Arguably the central thesis of the Republican campaign against President Barack Obama has been the idea that Americans are worse off financially after four years of his leadership. Nearly every speech and television appearance by a high profile Republican features those four words: “Are you better off?”
Fortunately, at least for members of Congress, the answer can be fact checked. As writer “War on Error” points out in Daily Kos, the watchdog organization Open Secrets scours disclosure forms to calculate the approximate net worth of every Congressional representative.
Although the data from 2011 is not yet available, the results from 2008 to 2010 — during the depths of the economic crisis — are clear. Due to a wide range of factors including a booming stock market and historically low tax rates, the same Congressmen who blast “the worst recovery since the Great Depression” have seen their own personal incomes skyrocket.
