The one percenters in Congress

The "No Budget, No Pay" bill that passed the House of Representatives Wednesday is designed to stop all pay to members of Congress until they pass a budget. 

The "No Budget, No Pay" bill passed the Senate Thursday afternoon, sending the measure to the President's desk for a final signature.

Just when you thought the seemingly endless rabbit hole of Wall Street-Washington corruption, cronyism, co-option, crime and kickbacks may have finally come to an end, here comes the House Ethic Committee to pronounce that no ethics breaches were found among House members in its investigation involving the scandal surrounding Countrywide "VIP loans" and the "Friends of Angelo." And in just doing so, the House effectively cleared itself of any wrongdoing and that's it, case closed - move along... Move along.

Catherine Rampell gives us another look at the elite insulation from the continuing bleakness in the labor market:

Despite a devastating recession, the collective personal wealth of congressional members increased by more than 16 percent between 2008 and 2009, according to study released Wednesday by the Center for Responsive Politics. The study also found that more than half of all members—261—were millionaires.

That used to be one of the slogans for health-care reform: Every American should have the same insurance choices that members of Congress have. This obscured, to some degree, that members of Congress don't have very interesting choices: Most of them are covered by BlueCross BlueShield. But it sounded good.

"My proposal," Obama said today, "would give uninsured individuals and small-business owners the same kind of choice of private health insurance that members of Congress get for themselves." It's worth noting that this is more than a rhetorical flourish. It's Section 1312 of the bill: