At Least Six Millionaires to Take Senate Oaths Tuesday
Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, sixth from right, stands with senators-elect at the U.S. Capitol Building in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Wednesday, Nov. 12, 2014.
Photographer: Andrew Harrer/BloombergThere's no shortage of statistics to show that Congress no longer reflects the demographics of the nation it represents. That's especially true when it comes to personal finances. Of the 13 newly elected members of the Senate to be sworn in Tuesday, at least six are millionaires. That's a conservative estimate and the proportion is almost certainly higher.
Their arrival in the Senate comes as the wealth gap between the nation's top 20 percent of earners—including many members of Congress—and every other income group in America has reached its widest point in at least three decades, according to a Pew Research Center study released in December. Pew also found in a report released in October that the issue of income inequality is of growing importance to the American public. Forty-six percent of respondents said it's a “very big problem,” while 32 percent said its a “moderately” big problem.