44% of Congress are millionaires. Less than 1% of the population are millionaires. We have a problem.

In the Sphere blogsite today, writer David Knowles has a very informative piece.  It seems that 44% of all sitting members of Congress are millionaires while less than 1% of the American population shares that status.  The story is here.

Being in Congress is pretty much being available to the ultimate in insider information.  Fortunes are made simply by knowing people and knowing facts that the rest of us can never garner since we do not have a Congressman’s access.

This is not representative government.  Let me ask you something.  Did you serve in uniform, possibly in combat, so that this situation could masquerade as "representative government" for you and yours? 

Neither did I.  This needs to become a real crucial factor in our continuing reform of what passes for representative government in this country.  This is outrageous.

According the the Associated Press the man who shot and killed six former coworkers was an out of work engineer who the firm had let go two years ago.  He was flat broke.  The story is here.

This is more fallout from the economic mess that two expensive and completely unnecessary wars have brought down upon us.  But there are thousands who are making millions from these wars.  How do you feel about that?

The Associated Press is also reporting on AOL News today that ten percent unemployment is our new economic reality for some time to come.  It is also President Obama’s albatross around his neck. Here is the story.

Now let me ask you another question.  The trillions of dollars we have spent on wars to make perhaps twenty thousand Americans into millionaires in the war industries and the energy cartels….was it worth all that American blood and treasure?  How do you feel about that set of circumstances?

Do you think our government is all that representative of you now?  Or do you think it represents the fat cats?   You know the ones. They are they ones that killed our kids in uniform for greed, started two wars and want another one in Pakistan so they can sell more weapons and get a pipeline up and runnng from Turkmenistan to the Arabian Sea….what do you think?  Is this representative government in your mind?

Here is another thing to consider.  The Associated Press is reporting that local banks in Georgia, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, California were closed on Friday by the federal government because they could not meet their creditors claims.  That story is here.

Now let me ask you again.  Do you think that the local Americans in those communities would like to see that war money spent on their local needs out of their local banks or do they think they really give a rat’s ass whether or not we have one more war industry millionaire in this country?

Just asking.

And in this story from Politics Daily we learn that President Obama visited the war wounded at Walter Reed Army Hospital the day after the massacre at Fort Hood. 

So, what do you think?  Are you willing and capable of electing yet another millionaire to Congress?  Do you think he or she will represent your needs?  Is that representative government?

How do you feel about that?  Just asking.

CWO3 Tom Barnes, USCG (Ret.)