The world's richest man is dying to figure out how lawmakers on Capitol Hill got "strangely wealthy" despite their comparatively modest public salaries.
Speaking at a town hall in Wisconsin Sunday night, Elon Musk suggested that his team at the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) will investigate how certain members of Congress have achieved generational wealth.
One attendee at the town hall had asked Musk if DOGE had uncovered evidence of funds wired from the US Agency for International Development (USAID) to Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY).
"They'll [the government] send the money overseas to one NGO [non-governmental organization], then they'll go through a bunch of them, and then I'm highly confident that a bunch of that money then comes back to the United States and lands in the pockets of the people you just mentioned," Musk replied.
"But it is a circuitous route. It doesn't go directly, but let's just say that there's a lot of strangely wealthy members of Congress where I'm trying to connect the dots of, 'How do they become rich?'"
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Rank-and-file members of Congress make $174,000 annually. Last year, Musk -- whose net worth is pegged at $330 billion by Bloomberg -- helped kill legislation to raise congressional pay, then later supported an increase as a means of fighting corruption.
Scores of lawmakers who have spent decades in Congress are millionaires.
Two of the wealthiest include former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who has a net worth of about $250 million, and Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.), whose personal fortune hovers around $552 million.
Pelosi's wealth largely comes from her and her venture capitalist husband Paul's lucrative investments in companies like Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Google and Netflix.
Scott's personal fortunes largely stem from his work co-founding HCA Healthcare, a company that runs hospitals and other medical facilities around Florida, and Solantic, an urgent-care clinic chain. His work on both of those companies predates his time in the Senate.
"How do they get $20 million if they're earning $200,000 a year?" Musk further pondered. "We're going to try to figure it out and certainly stop it from happening."
Musk was in Wisconsin to rally for Brad Schimel, the Republican hoping to keep the 4-3 Republican advantage on the Wisconsin Supreme Court.
Of course, it's a CONSPIRACY THEORY offered WITHOUT EVIDENCE to even speculate about Congressional Democrats getting rich on the backs of the American taxpayers.
But, as it turns out, longtime Congresswoman Barbara Lee pushed to give federal contracts to minority-fronted businesses and just happened to take a little piece of each of those contracts.
The $63 million woman: Barbara Lee company tied to 287 federal contract actions, many while she was in political office
According to the Federal Procurement Data System, over $44 million went to guard services.
by Susan Dyer Reynolds April 1, 2025
In a post on X, attorney Laura Powell notes that during the 1996 State Senate race, "current Oakland mayoral candidate Barbara Lee was called out by her opponent for her company's federal contracts . . .,b> she was awarded many of these contracts without facing any competitive bids. Barbara Lee responded by saying that it was ridiculous to suggest that her close association with Congressman Dellums helped her win those contracts." Powell also quotes Lee's response at the time: "I am a self-made woman. I work very hard. I'm a product of affirmative action. I understand the barriers that are there that exclude people like me from participating."
Powell also adds a little background: "After graduating college with a degree in social work, Barbara Lee worked in Congressman Dellums's office for 11 years, then started a facilities management company in 1987. In 1990, she went to the California Assembly, while continuing to run this company, which she says grew to 500 employees before she sold it."
Powell's assessment is spot on -- it turns out The Voice of San Francisco was already looking into Lee's financial past. Not only did she make multimillions of dollars from federal contracts, mostly without competition, but she seems to have "forgotten" that part of her history: In a post on X dated April 15, 2024, Lee said, "If minority-owned businesses received federal contracts reflecting their share of the US biz sector in 2020, they would've received an additional $64 BILLION. We're calling on @SBAGov to release all FY21-23 data so we can improve equity in contracting."
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During the 1990s, while Barbara Lee served as a California State Assembly member (1990--1996) and later as a State Senator (1996--199
, W.C. Parish secured contracts with federal agencies, including the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Posts on X and public commentary suggest that the company received significant federal contracts, however, these figures stemmed from unverified sources and lacked corroboration from official federal contract databases -- until now. A months-long investigation by The Voice turned up decades of apparent bias procurement, set-asides, and entitlement: In other words, it's easy to be successful, even have 400 to 500 employees, when contracts are steered your way -- and that's likely why the whole story has been kept under wraps, for the most part.
Curse your eyes for even having looked at those hateful words, Bigots.