Not all politicians come into office wealthy - but many leave that way.
That's one reason we hear a lot about the "swamp" in Washington, D.C.
Our familiarity with the term largely began when self-described billionaire Donald Trump convinced enough voters that he would be the voice of hard-working Americans who haven't had raises in a decade and whose children have a hard time finding and keeping good jobs.
It turns out, of course, that President Trump hasn't been the voice of hard-working Americans. But that was just the first pledge he broke. The second was his promise to "drain" the swamp.
But he didn't divest himself of his own businesses. Instead, he and his family continue to profit, even on a federally owned vintage post office building in Washington which his company leases and operates as a hotel despite an obvious conflict of interest. As president, he is his own landlord and oversees anyone who might inspect his post office/hotel profits. Meanwhile, foreign and domestic visitors who do business with the White House often stay at this hotel and eat there, hoping to curry Trump's favor.
Tennessee Congress members
Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., a developer, $69.4 million, ranks 4th in the Senate Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., a lawyer, former university president and longtime politician, $16.6 million, ranks 13th in the Senate Rep. Diane Black, R-Tenn., a nurse who with her husband owns a drug-testing lab, $75.3 million, ranks 8th in the House Rep. Jim Cooper, D-Tenn., a lawyer and longtime politician, $30.3 million, ranks 19th in the House Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Tenn., a lawyer and longtime politician, $5.1 million, ranks 75th in the House Rep. Phil Roe, R-Tenn., a physician and longtime politician, $5 million, ranks 79th in the House Rep. Chuck Fleischmann, R-Tenn., a lawyer, $2.5 million, ranks 134th in the House Rep. Steve Fincher, R-Tenn., farmer, $750,000, ranks 241st in the House Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., former businesswoman, longtime politician, $568,007, ranks 268th in the House Rep. John Duncan, R-Tenn., a lawyer, former judge and longtime politician, $294,005, ranks 323rd in the House Rep. Scott Desjarlais, R-Tenn., a physician, $188,004, ranks 351st in the House
Not only did Trump make no effort to drain the swamp as promised, he filled his cabinet with still more swamp creatures - more multimillionaires from big banks, big corporations and big Congress.
Yes, big Congress. A majority of our Congress members are now millionaires. In 2015, 70 percent of our 100 senators were millionaires, and 35 percent of them boasted a net worth of more than $3.1 million each.
Add to that, half of the 435 U.S. House of Representatives members were worth more than $888,508.
Georgia Congress members
Sen. David Perdue, R-Ga., businessman and longtime politician, $30 million, ranks 9th in the Senate Sen. Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., a realtor and longtime politician, $25.3 million, ranks 11th in the Senate Rep. Tom Graves, R-Ga., a real estate investor and longtime politician, $678,506, ranks 250th in the House Rep. Doug Collins, R-Ga., a lawyer, chaplain and longtime politician, $434,005, ranks 288th in the House Alabama Congress members Sen. Richard C. Shelby, R-Ala., a lawyer and longtime politician, $10.9 million, ranks 22nd in the Senate Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., a lawyer and longtime politician, $7.5 million, ranks 29th in the Senate Rep. Robert B Aderholt, R-Ala., a lawyer and longtime politician, $3.1 million, ranks 121st in the House Rep. Mo Brooks, R-Ala., a lawyer and longtime politician, $666,021, ranks 252nd in the House
The salary of a typical member of Congress is $174,000. Good savers, you think?
Perhaps. But senators especially increased their net worth in 2015 - the most recent year for which we have a complete picture - at a far greater rate than Congress as a whole.
In 2015, the median net worth of Senate Republicans rose from $2.9 million to $3.3 million, a jump of 13 percent. The net worth of Senate Democrats rose 9 percent, according to personal financial disclosure data filed by congressional members and reviewed by the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan, independent and nonprofit research group that tracks money in U.S. politics - and its effect on elections and public policy. The center operates the popular OpenSecrets.org website where this information is found.
You might wonder: How much did the net worth of all combined U.S. households rise?
Answer: A mere 4.5 percent - about half the rate of increase for Democrat senators and about a third of the rate for Republicans.
No wonder these lawmakers don't care whether we can afford health care. No wonder they don't understand the pressures of ordinary middle-class Americans.
No wonder they peddle a tax cuts plan that gives nearly all of them big tax breaks - on our backs.
By the way, the typical American family earned $56,516 in 2015.
Here's a glimpse at the richest and poorest in Congress:
The 10 Richest
Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., $330 million
Rep. Jared Polis, D-Colo., $313.5 million
Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., $238.1 million
Rep. John K Delaney, D-Md., $232.8 million
Rep. Dave Trott, R-Mich., $177.1 million
Rep. Vernon Buchanan, R-Fla., $115.5 million
Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., $100.6 million
Rep. Scott Peters, D-Calif., $95.5 million
Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., $81.7 million
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., $79 million
The 10 Poorest
(No one is qualifying for food stamps, but some lawmakers carry significant personal and/or business debt.)
Rep. David Valadao, R-Calif., -$24.3 million
Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, D-Mo., -$2.2 million
Rep. Ruben Hinojosa, D-Texas, -$2 million
Rep. Alcee L Hastings, D-Fla., -$1.5 million
Rep. Lou Barletta, R-Pa., -$1.1 million
Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard, D-Calif., -$461,498
Rep. Duncan D Hunter, R-Calif., -$387,500
Rep. Tom McClintock, R-Calif., -$385,498
Rep. Rick Crawford, R-Ark., -$375,000
Rep. Norma Torres, D-Calif., -$365,999
How the net worths are figured
By law, Congress members must file person financial disclosure forms each year.
The Center for Responsive Politics obtained reports covering the years from 2005 to 2015 from the Senate Office of Public Records and the Office of the Clerk of the House. The disclosure forms do not require exact values. Instead, lawmakers report the value of assets and liabilities within ranges. A lawmaker marks his or her property assets in minimum and maximum ranges, for instance, between $100,001 and $250,000. To calculate net worth, researchers with the Center for Responsive Politics added a lawmaker's ranges of assets and subtracted their range of liabilities. Then researchers calculated the midpoint of the resulting range and used that figure for these rankings.
To learn more visit www.opensecrets.org
Source: Center for Responsive Politics