Nearly half of Congress is the 1%

[GG]

 Consider these numbers:

Nearly half of the members of Congress are millionaires, according to the Center for Responsive Politics (CRP), a Washington watchdog.
The median net worth of a U.S. senator was $2.63 million in 2010, the most recent year for which financial data are available. That was up 11% from the year before, says CRP.
The median estimated net worth for House members was $756,765.
The median net worth of House members almost tripled from 1984 and 2009, while the net worth of Americans declined slightly during the same time, according to the Washington Post and the University of Michigan.

http://money.msn.com/investing/latest.aspx?post=70cc8f98-07b4-4e4e-923e-5569bd82627d

Something to think about.   Who is looking out for your best interest.

[GG]

But shrewd stock picking also clearly help. Studies by Alan Ziobrowski at Georgia State University conclude that our reps regularly outperform the markets by large amounts due to the "significant information advantage" they derive from their jobs.

They can benefit from insider trading and it is legal.  I will demand from any elected representative I support to repeal this law.

[AquaMan]

Well, a million ain't what it used to be

An information advantage isn't the same thing as insider information. You certainly can't just force them to not pay attention or not be able to invest.

However distressing it may look, do you really want people in those positions who aren't proficient at understanding the system? We just need to look and listen to them more carefully without assuming they have our best interests at heart. The critical thing that we can use is the recall process. If they mislead the voters, like many think Scott Walker did, then they have to be held accountable.

[JCnOwasso]

Members of congress must be notified 72 hrs prior to release of notification of award for any contract exceeding a certian threshold (from 500k-1M).  While notifying them of 1M dollar awards don't make that big of a difference, if they find out about a multi-hundred million or Billion dollar award prior to public release, it may prove beneficial to them... however, if I use my information, I have to claim it on my OGE450 and will most likely be questioned about misuse of award knowledge.