Joe Rogan on congress: what the evidence says · JRE #2341
SUBJECT: CONGRESS
Not a true/false call. Every claim is logged with its sources; read the exhibits below.
when you have people that are public servants that are making $170,000 a year and yet they're worth hundreds of millions of dollars through some magical way that no one can explain, and you haven't done that.
What the evidence says 01 / RECORD
The salary figure is roughly right: rank-and-file members of Congress earn $174,000, a level frozen since 2009 because lawmakers have repeatedly declined the automatic cost-of-living adjustment (NPR). It is also true that a handful of members are worth hundreds of millions, with Senator Rick Scott the wealthiest. The insinuation that this wealth appears through some unexplained magical means is misleading, however: the richest members overwhelmingly built their fortunes in business before or outside Congress, for example Rick Scott in for-profit hospitals, Darrell Issa in car-alarm electronics, Greg Gianforte and Jared Polis in technology companies they founded and sold (Forbes). Overall the claim is mixed: the numbers are broadly accurate, but the implied inexplicable, corrupt origin of that wealth is not supported for the wealthiest members.