Two Big Steps for Transparency in Government

October 10, 2006 11:38 AM

How the US Federal Government spends our money. How the US Representatives spend their money.
posted by shoepal (18 comments total)

I had no idea that some of these guys/gals were worth so much.
posted by Mr_Zero at 11:50 AM on October 10, 2006

(Top 100 Contractors of 2005 / Most popular investments )
posted by shoepal at 11:50 AM on October 10, 2006

I had no idea some of them were worth so little! And the guy from Louisiana is worth nothing, it seems.
posted by anthill at 11:51 AM on October 10, 2006

Alternative explanation: Most of them omit lots of information, nobody audits them.
posted by anthill at 11:53 AM on October 10, 2006

From my state...

Rosa L. DeLauro (D-Conn) Min net worth: $5,724,031; Max net worth: $26,835,000.

I guess that explains why she has so much time to work tirelessly on giving government back to The People.

/snark
posted by ZenMasterThis at 12:27 PM on October 10, 2006

Right, Dick Cheney's net worth is 85K. My ass.
posted by spicynuts at 12:30 PM on October 10, 2006

Whoops...looks like I misread a comma as a period. I'm the ass.
posted by spicynuts at 12:31 PM on October 10, 2006

Hey! There are as many rich Democrats as there are Republicans! Who knew?
posted by tadellin at 12:36 PM on October 10, 2006

I would have loved to see a graph plotting how much richer (or poorer, hah!) they get while in office - and shortly afterwards.
posted by JoddEHaa at 1:05 PM on October 10, 2006

now this is what the internet is for.
posted by Miles Long at 1:08 PM on October 10, 2006

Wait, isn't this, for example, a bit misleading?

Joe Wilson (R-SC) - 2005
Net Worth: From $10,000 to ($65,000)
Assets: 4 totaling $700,008 to $1,500,000
Liabilities: 9 totaling $690,008 to $1,565,000

So he could be worth from ($864,992) to $809,992 if the net worth is calculated differently. I'm not picking on Joe Wilson, there are a few others I've seen with this same unintuitive method of calculating net worth. Or is this just a standard financial formula that I'm misapplying?
posted by peeedro at 1:13 PM on October 10, 2006

I love the fact that my favorite senator, Russ Feingold, is actually in the hole.
posted by msali at 1:45 PM on October 10, 2006

Hey! There are as many rich Democrats as there are Republicans! Who knew?

The data must be wrong. Everyone knows that Republicans are the party of the rich.
posted by ZenMasterThis at 2:27 PM on October 10, 2006

How is the US government getting my money?? That's what I want to know.
posted by A Thousand Baited Hooks at 2:30 PM on October 10, 2006

peeedro: You're exactly right. Their formula is sloppy.
posted by brain_drain at 2:41 PM on October 10, 2006

Transactions: Mark Foley

www.gay4pay.com - $768
www.congresscock.com - $803
www.scientology.org - $25000
posted by dirtynumbangelboy at 6:05 PM on October 10, 2006

Lawmakers in plutocracy generally rich - film at 11.
posted by pompomtom at 8:06 PM on October 10, 2006

Senator Feingold has no money? OMG! That explains why I never get any responses from him (in spite of my positive emails). I'd like to send him some dough, but, geez, I have a hard time doing that when he can't even reply to email (well, his staff doesn't, I'm not being rediculous).
posted by Goofyy at 11:59 PM on October 10, 2006