We need to make Congress normal again. Right now, that’s just not the case. More than half of Congress is made up of millionaires and our very own Rep. Suzan DelBene is right there at the top, ranking 14th out of 535 in 2015 with a net worth of $31.4 million. She has more money than Nancy Pelosi, John McCain and Mitch McConnell to name a few in the top 40. Talk about the 1 percent!
The 1st District has over 650,000 people with an average income of $58,000. Rep. DelBene is 500 times richer than the average person she represents. That’s just not right.
The term “1 percent” originated from economist Joseph Stiglitz’s May 2011 Vanity Fair article, “Of the 1 percent, by the 1 percent, for the 1 percent.”
He says, “The rich don’t need to rely on government for parks or education or medical care or personal security — they can buy all these things for themselves. In the process, they become more distant from ordinary people, losing whatever empathy they may once have had.”
In other words, DelBene is so rich she has completely lost touch with her constituents. How much can a person from Medina, one of the richest cities in Washington, where your neighbors are Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos, relate to the average person from Darrington, Concrete, Monroe or Sultan? Wake up people!
Our state has a simple primary that can upset even the richest incumbent. How? If we flood the primary with 30 candidates, the percentages will even out. Money will lose it’s power, and a new top two will emerge. We need all previous candidates to simply run again as well as many others who have the courage to take money out of Congress and simply run. Let’s make Congress normal again.
Adam Brauch
Bothell
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