“Nothing so strongly impels a man to regard the interest of his constituents, as the certainty of returning to the general mass of the people, from whence he was taken, where he must participate in their burdens.” George Mason is quoted as saying during the Virginia Ratifying Convention, June 17, 1788.
And as you know by now, Nevada Senator Harry Reid has decided to call it quits and saying he’ll not seek reelection in 2016.
During the 32 years Reid’s served in Congress the debt of the federal government has grown $16,955,289,814,977.42. That equals an increase of about $145,131 for every household in the country.
When Reid was first elected to the House of Representatives in 1982, according to the ‘Monthly Statement of the Public Debt’ for December 1982, the total public debt of the federal government was $1.97 trillion. As of March 25 of this year, the latest day for which debt numbers are available, the federal debt was $18.152 trillion.
That means the federal debt’s increased jus’ under $17 trillion. That increase, when applied to the current $155,378 debt carried by every U.S. household, means that 93 percent of that debt came during Reid’s tenure.
Now, Reid, whose personal wealth has grown since he’s been in Congress, will walk away with a taxpayer-funded pension of nearly 70 percent of his senatorial base pay, which is jus’ over $200,000. So it begs the question: what burden does Reid share with the ‘general mass of the people?’
It must be nice work, if you can get it.
The Old Blog in the Desert 
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