How The Income Levels And Wealth Of Members Of Congress

Congressional Members by Income Introduction: My topic is the evaluation of how the income levels and wealth of members of Congress affects the bias of voting history and influences members to vote certain ways. I will be gathering data on members of Congress’ wealth and voting history. This topic is relevant because it will either prove that there is a correlation between the net worth of a Congressman and how if anything do his assets affect his voting (i.e. do subsidies influence voting records?). Hypothesis: The hypothesis I’m presenting is if the majority of the members of Congress are wealthy (net worth of $1 million), then they will not be able to relate to the people they serve. I selected the $1 million mark because according to†¦show more content†¦Three ethical issues that must be considered for this research are: †¢ Political ethics and the process of becoming an American politician. This is important because I will show that the current system favors the rich and excludes anyone with no access to a lot of money (over $1 million) from becoming a congressman. †¢ Political ethics and the policies which are created by the politicians who average over the $1million in assets mark. This is important because a smaller segment of our population in terms of wealth and income (higher than the norm), is creating policies that overall, negatively affect the majority of impoverished, undereducated, and underemployed Americans. †¢ Moral obligations of our government. I would like to examine what the moral obligations our government has to those who are not in the rich or super rich segments of American society. This is important to define because since the public elects its leaders, then how much responsibility does the elected official have to â€Å"take care† of the public? How do you define who needs to cared for in terms of concessions (policies such as unemployment, food stamps, healthcare) and how do you define where the responsibility of the individual lies on handing his or her own personal financial health? Suppositions and Supplementary Hypothesis 1. Congressmen and women who are able to campaign have more wealth than the average American, which enables them to build political