They represent the people, fight for your rights, know what is best for us, and legislate and implement laws that are good for the country. They also have millions of dollars, or in a certain case, billions of dollars in their wallets. Here now is a list of the top 10 richest politicians in the United States.
10. Rick Scott – $83 million
Rick Scott is the Governor of Florida. He belongs to the Republican Party and has been at the helm of the Sunshine State since 2011. A native of Illinois, he is a product of the University of Missouri, Kansas City and Southern Methodist University’s Dedman School of Law. He co-founded the Columbia Hospital Corporation in 1987. This merged with the Hospital Corporation of America two years later to become the largest private for-profit health care corporation in the country. The company was later involved in a Medicare billing scandal, forcing them to pay the government $600 million. Scott then became a venture capitalist before he entered politics....
9. Bill and Hillary Clinton – $85 million
Bill and Hillary Clinton are members of the Democratic Party. Bill was an Arkansas governor and served as the 42nd President, when he led the country to its longest peacetime period of economic expansion. His wife Hillary was a former Senator from New York who made an unsuccessful attempt to run for president in 2008. She later served as the Secretary of State in the administration of President Barack Obama. Both Bill and Hillary are products of Yale Law School, where they first met.
8. Al Gore – $100 million
Al Gore used to be the Representative and Senator from Tennessee before he became the Vice President of the country in 1993. A member of the Democratic Party, he narrowly lost his presidential bid in 2000 even though he won a majority of the popular vote. He is an environmental activist and has won the Nobel Peace Prize for his work in climate change. He is the co-founder and chairman of Current TV. He is also a director of Apple and an adviser to Google.
7. John Kerry – $193 million
John Kerry is a Democrat who started out as the Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts. He then became a Senator from 1985 to 2013, before becoming the Secretary of State in President Obama’s current administration. He graduated from Yale University before serving in Vietnam where he won several combat awards. After returning from the war, however, Kerry became an outspoken opponent of American involvement in Vietnam, saying that U.S. policies are the cause of war crimes in the Southeast Asian nation.
6. Mitt Romney – $255 million
Mitt Romney is a member of the Republican Party who served as the Governor of Massachusetts from 2003 to 2007. In 2012, he was his party’s standard-bearer in the presidential elections. He used to be the Chief Executive Officer of Bain & Company, a firm that he led out of trouble amidst a financial crisis. He also helped found Bain Capital, a highly profitable company that became one of the largest private equity investment firms in the nation.
5. Michael McCaul – $305 million
Michael McCaul is a member of the Republican Party and Representative of the 10th District of Texas. He is considered to be one of the richest men in Congress today, with a substantial jump in his already considerable wealth coming from monetary transfers from the family of his wife. Before he entered politics, McCaul served as Chief of Counter terrorism and National Security for the Texas branch of the U.S. Attorney’s office. He also served as Deputy Attorney General from 1998 until 2002.
4. Jon Corzine – $375 million
Jon Corzine is a member of the Democratic Party who served as the Senator from New Jersey fro 2001 to 2006. He then cut his term off after he was elected as Governor of the Garden State from 2006 to 2010. He lost his reelection bid, however, to Republican Chris Christie. Corzine used to be the Chief Executive Officer of Goldman Sachs during the latter part of the 90s. After his electoral defeat, he became the CEO of MF Global from 2010 to 2011. The company filed for bankruptcy in October 2011, and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission charged Corzine.
3. Arnold Schwarzenneger – $400 million
Arnold Schwarzenegger is an actor and bodybuilder who became Governor of California in 2003. A member of the Republican Party, he served in office until 2011. Schwarzenegger has starred in several blockbuster movies, including The Terminator series, Total Recall and True Lies. Due to his substantial income from acting, he never accepted his governor’s salary of $175,000 per year. While he started out with an 89 percent approval rating in 2003, he left office with a record low of 23 percent, partly because of ethics issues when he cheated on his wife.
2. Darrell Issa – $450 million
Darrell Issa is a member of the Republican Party and is the Representative of the 49th District of California. He used to be the Chief Executive Officer of Directed Electronics, a manufacturer of automobile security and convenience parts based in Vista in California. He is the voice behind the alarm that says, “Protected by Viper. Stand back.”, as well as, “Please step away from the car.” He is a loyal member of the party, voting along party lines 94.7 percent of the time. He is now the Chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.
1. Michael Bloomberg – $27 billion
Michael Bloomberg is an independent Republican who is the current Mayor of New York City. Originally a Democrat, he switched to the Republican Party in 2001 when he first ran for the position. He left the party in 2007 and won a third term in 2009 as an independent, though listed on the Republican ballot line. He is the founder and majority owner of Bloomberg LP, a company that specializes in global financial data. He is considered as the seventh richest man in the country.
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