How Much do 535 Members of Congress Cost American Taxpayers?

A quick look suggests that total legislative branch appropriations for FY14 is about $4.1 billion. This includes House and Senate member and staff salaries and benefits, Capitol Complex maintenance, staff and security (including the U.S. Capitol Police), the Library of Congress, the GAO, the CBO, the Government Printing Office. This comes to $7,476,635 each we taxpayers lay out for every member of Congress. Are they worth that kind of money?

It’s roughly a 33 week work year. Or, they work 8 months a year. But, the overhead is there for 52 weeks while they are not. If this were a business that would be unacceptable. Paying that much for such little productivity would change.

Six of the counties around Washington DC are in the top ten wealthiest in the country. What gets produced there that creates such wealth? Government, that’s all, government.

WASHINGTON — The amount of lobbying activity being reported has declined in President Trump’s Washington, but observers say it’s not because he is making good on his promise to “drain the swamp” of special interests.The slow pace of legislation, stiffer rules, and a gradual decline in the number of lobbyists have contributed to the decrease in the first half of 2017.The number of registered lobbyists has dipped to a low point, and special interests, after an initial burst in activity earlier this year, have in the past few months reported less spending than in almost any similar period in the past 10 years.

There were 9,791 registered lobbyists at the end of June, the fewest since at least 2008, according to a Globe review of the last decade of lobbying data collected by the Center for Responsive Politics.

“It’s surprising,” said Dan Auble, a senior researcher at the Center for Responsive Politics. “Everyone expects when there’s a change in party and agenda — and claims of changing a lot of policies — that it’s a huge opportunity for companies and industries.”

Isn’t it cute how hard all so-called journalists work to avoid giving any credit for anything to Trump.

So, if the number of lobbyists is dropping to just over 18 per legislator. Let’s check the money spent.

Those 9,791 lobbyists spent $2,864,000,000. That comes to $5,535,271 per Congressperson, or almost as much as we taxpayers spend to keep them in office.

Here are the top 50 lobbyists by expenditure: They represent 25% of the total spent in 2016, or $716,000,000.

So, between the special interests and the taxpayers, $13,011,906 is spent for each of 535 Representatives and Senators to work 33 weeks a year.

Answers the question about why the 6 wealthiest counties of 10 are around D.C. but does it answer the question, are they worth it? You tell me.

But, perhaps it explains why Republicans, as well as Democrats, fear Trump and his swamp draining pledge. Plus, it may help understand why everyone who serves in the House and Senate leaves very wealthy.