New Economy Working Group

“Members of Congress have the capacity to make sure all Americans, not just a privileged few, share in the wealth that we all together create,” study co-author Scott Klinger, associate fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies said in a release. “With this new report card, voters can see for themselves how well their elected lawmakers are meeting that responsibility.”

The liberal think tank Institute for Policy Studies is out today with a "Congressional Report Card for the 99%" that dings Republicans as the "most 1% friendly" lawmakers.

"Advocacy groups have long rated members of Congress on their voting record as regards the environment, child welfare, conservative values, education, and a raft of other issues and philosophies. So it was only a matter of time before Americans would see a report card grading their leaders on how their votes widen or narrow the great divide between the wealthiest 1 percent and the rest of us," wrote the San Francisco Chronicle's editorial board on its Opinion Shop blog. "Today, the Institute for Policy Studies issued its report card on how the members of Congress are wielding their considerable power to shape our economy. That is, how they vote on tax rules, trade policies, subsidies and contracts. The topics, in fact, at the heart of tonight’s presidential debate between President Obama and his challenger, Republican Mitt Romney."

When we started the grading process, we feared it could turn out to be a big bore. With Congress so polarized, we expected to find lock-step partisan voting that would give all Republicans F's and all Democrats A's. Instead, we found that the divisiveness between parties is also alive and well within parties.

In general, however, we found Republicans to be extremely loyal to the "1 percent." We gave 59 of them an F. 

The point of this report card is not just to name and shame. We also aim to draw attention to the many creative proposals for restoring fairness that deserve more support. Two of the pending bills on our list would raise revenue for human needs by putting a small tax on Wall Street transactions. Another would increase the minimum wage and then index it to inflation.

According to the Institute for Policy Studies, the top 10 percent of all citizens here own 80 percent of all stock market wealth. The lower half of the country holds just .5 percent.

According to Matfess, both letters were written by experienced insiders who came to disdain the systemic failures and abuses of their respective institutions.

More important, she writes, is that both of these letters were written with a greater intention than simply giving their authors' two-weeks notice.

"The inventory of flaws in the financial system provided in these resignations is, at least in part, addressed to the American people. Though I can only speak for myself, I hope that Americans are willing to hear these critiques and demand greater governmental oversight for domestic financial institutions and increased transparency and accountability for international financial actors."