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Program Information
Hidden Histories
The corrupting influence of money on politics
Weekly Program
Jack R. Johnson
 Hidden Histories  Contact Contributor
Sept. 18, 2011, 6:35 p.m.
You may not have heard about this on your local television channel, but on September 17, this Saturday approximately 20,000 activists descended on Wall Street and set about ‘occupying it’….although coverage of this event by news media has been sparse, a hidden history of its own, if you will, one of their major complaints is something that has become glaringly obvious. The corrupting influence of money on politics. There are really two ways of looking at this. How wealthy the congressmen are and, in turn, how much money it cost in today’s dollars just to get elected.

On the first question—the answer is very wealthy.

There are 261 Millionaires in the US Congress -- about 50% of our elected officials are millionaires. Conversely, millionaires in the general population are less than 1%.

Here's another eye opening stat:

According to CBSnews, "The median wealth of a House member in 2009 stood at $765,010, while the median wealth for a senator in 2009 was nearly $2.38 million"

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