MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE

And Other American Rags to Riches Stories. THE COLUMN.

Everyone loves a great rags to riches story. Iconic examples include

Andrew Carnegie going from Scottish immigrant factory worker to one of the world’s richest men.

Pip – from Dicken’s Great Expectations – about a poor orphan becoming a gentleman.

Liza Doolittle – a sort of reverse Pip who becomes a lady in My Fair Lady.

Cinderella – who slides into a glass slipper to become a princess. (Marrying up has its advantages.)

Well, Marjorie Taylor Greene, you ain’t Cinderella.

But MTG – Congressional Rep from the 14^th District of Georgia - does have her own rags to riches story. It’s one of many to come out of Congress. (Is it the water in that place, or what? I may need to visit.)

Marjorie Taylor Greene turns out to be just like so many other members of Congress, where wealth seems to be more of a contagion than the product of hard work.

Greene came into office worth less than a million dollars and retired after five years totally Bucks Up. She’s leaving with a net worth of 25 million dollars AND a government pension!

Greene is resigning because – she claims - she is frustrated with “toxic politics” and the “political industrial complex” in Washington. But Greene also had a falling out with President Trump and was probably going to get primaried, so she quit. Retired, actually.

Regardless of the reasons, 5 years and a 3,471 per cent increase in your net worth ain’t bad.

And don’t forget the pension.

Back to the pension…

MTG started in Congress on January 3^rd, 2021 and will retire January 5, 2026, after five years and three days in office, just enough to meet the pension eligibility threshold. (Timing is everything.)

Greene’s $87-hundred dollar annual pension starts at age 62. She’s 51. The National Taxpayers Union says based upon actuarial data, it could total more than $265,000 over her lifetime.

Who gets a pension after just 5 years? Members of Congress, that’s who.

But Greene is a pension piker compared to Nancy Pelosi. Pelosi’s retirement, after living in Congress since the Pleistocene Epoch, starts out at nearly $109,000 thousand annually. That’s more than $9,000 a month and is one of the highest available under the Federal Employees Retirement System.

Cheeseburger Chuck Schumer would get $9,300 a month if he retired today.

But Pelosi’s pension pales by comparison with her net worth. Quiver Quantitative, which tracks Congressional stock portfolios, estimates Pelosi is worth more than $278 million, making her one of the wealthiest members of Congress. Much of her wealth is the result of timely stock trades by her husband. Timely, in that many critics of Pelosi allege the stock trades came from Pelosi’s insider knowledge of pending legislation and its potential impact on specific stocks.

Yahoo Finance (finance.yahoo.com) reports:

“A New York Post analysis revealed that before first taking office in 1987, Pelosi and her husband reported between $610,000 and $785,000 in stocks in their portfolio — worth $133.7 million today, according to the latest estimates from Quiver Quantitative (2).

“That means that Nancy Pelosi made a 16,930%, blasting past 2,300% for the Dow Jones over the same period of 37 years.

“Over the past decade alone, Pelosi’s portfolio has generated an estimated 838% cumulative return, beating the S&P 500’s 256% return by 581% at time of writing. In 2024, her portfolio jumped 70.9% compared to the S&P 500’s 24.9% gain. Pelosi’s personal net worth has skyrocketed to over $278 million according to Quiver Quant data.”

Here’s part of the problem. Members of Congress oversee the federal activity in their districts, including influencing which contractors get millions of dollars in federal contract money.

Here’s another part of the problem, reported by OpenTheBooks.com in 2019:

“Members of Congress own investment stock in, are employed by, and receive retirement pensions from federal contractors – to whom billions of taxpayer dollars flow. Moreover, Members sponsor legislation that affects these contractors. Then, the contractor’s lobbyists advocate for the legislation that helps the Member and the contractor. Oftentimes, the contractor’s lobbyist donates campaign cash to the Member, as well.”

“Our audit provides the details on how the game is

played… with your tax dollars. We found the top donors

to Members giving hundreds of thousands of dollars in

campaign cash and receiving millions – if not billions

of dollars – in federal subsidies and contracts.

“Congress writes our laws. Nothing we uncovered in our

oversight report is illegal.

“In fact, it’s all legal. Quite possibly, that is the scandal.”

The report, entitled The Congressional Favor Factory, cites several examples of Congressional Members holding powerful positions and reaping valuable benefits, including large campaign donations, lobbying, stock ownership, influence, employment and board memberships, almost always from federal contractors within their districts. Among other things, the report stated:

“We found a correlation between the Members profiled in this report and their votes to increase federal spending. Over the last two-years, the over-whelming majority of these members voted for the omnibus budget bills, which increased federal spending to all-time highs.”

The examples included both Democrats and Republicans. Members were offered the opportunity to respond to the report. OpenTheBooks.com said none did.

Here’s just one table in the report – showing large campaign donations:

“Large Campaign Donations: all featured federal contractors are ranked within the respective Member’s Top 1-12 all-time campaign donors. Additionally, all of these federal contractors are located within the boundaries of the respective Member’s congressional district.”

There are other ways to go from Rags to Riches as a U.S. Congress Member. Much of Marjorie Taylor Greene’s wealth comes from part ownership of a construction company her father founded. But a lot has come from investment. Yahoo Finance says Greene (à la Nancy Pelosi) has one of the best investment runs ever by a sitting politician. Yahoo took a look and found her portfolio bloomed to an estimated 2.6 to 4 million dollars - up 476% since 2021.

Her portfolio gained more than 30 percent compared to the S&P 5090’s 24.9% return. Yahoo reports she’s “been on fire in 2025. Out of 216 total trades… 161 are currently profitable- at a hedge-fund-like 74.5% win rate. A remarkable 92 of those trades have gained more than 10 %.”

• Greene has repeatedly stated, “I don’t place my buys and sells,” attributing the trades to an outside portfolio manager with a fiduciary agreement. She often learns about her trades from media reports.

• When facing criticism, Greene’s defense has centered on the idea that her manager is simply “buying the dip” and acting on publicly available information.

• Tariff-Timed Trades: In April 2025, Greene’s portfolio manager purchased stocks in 17 companies, including Amazon, Nvidia, and Tesla, shortly before President Trump announced a 90-day pause on new tariffs. Markets soared immediately after the announcement, leading to immediate gains and calls for an investigation.

Understandably, most Americans probably wish they had a portfolio like Greene’s or Pelosi’s.

How can Congress get away with it? One answer regarding stock market profiteering – there is no law prohibiting lawmakers from trading stock, so says Law.Com:

“Insider trading laws and the 2012 STOCK Act do not prohibit lawmakers from trading on the public stock market. It’s no secret, however, that congressional lawmakers have access to nonpublic information about corporations and national industries that intersect with their legislative duties. Enacted in April 2012 with bipartisan support, the STOCK Act made clear that members of Congress are prohibited from trading on material, nonpublic information and substantially broadened reporting requirements for U.S. representatives and senators, as well as senior executive branch officials. Those reporting requirements, however, do not require real-time disclosure ... “

Another answer regarding employment and other perks: Congress writes the laws. And so far, no law has been written prohibiting outside employment, including jobs with private employers such as federal contractors. While there is no law prohibiting employment, there is also no law “allowing” Members to hold those jobs. Instead, all is governed by a combination of congressional ethics rules, internal rules of each chamber and conflict of interest law, rather than a single statutory authorization.

Here’s a summary of the key legal framework:

1. House and Senate Ethics Rules (Internal Rules of Congress)
Each chamber’s internal ethics rules allow Members to engage in outside employment subject to restrictions on conflicts of interest and disclosures. For example:

· The House Committee on Ethics states that Members and senior staff may work outside the House, subject to federal law, House rules, ethics standards, and office policies. House Committee on Ethics

· House Rule 27, enacted as part of the Honest Leadership and Open Government Act of 2007 (Pub. L. 110-81), restricts how Members may negotiate for future employment while in office unless disclosed — indicating that outside employment offers and negotiations are permitted with oversight.

You can see the official Congressional guidance here:
🔗 House Ethics — Outside Employment (ethics.house.gov) House Committee on Ethics: Outside Employment Resource

2. Federal Conflict-of-Interest and Ethics Laws
There is no absolute statutory ban on Members of Congress holding private employment, but ethics laws govern conflicts of interest:

· 18 U.S.C. § 208 — Applies to federal employees and prohibits participation in matters that affect their own financial interests or those of entities they are negotiating with for employment. Members of Congress are subject to related ethics constraints under internal rules. House Committee on Ethics

· Ethics in Government Act limits on outside earned income — Under 5 U.S.C. § 502 (as part of the Ethics in Government Act of 1978), certain high-paid officers and officials (which can include Members) face limitations on outside employment and income, but these are restrictions, not prohibitions of outside work itself. Justia Law

Here is the .gov source for the statutory language:
🔗 5 U.S.C. § 502 – Limitations on outside employment (via Justia) 5 U.S.C. § 502 (outside employment restrictions)

When it’s all said and done, Congress makes the rules, Congress doesn’t make the rules, but you can be certain Congress makes certain that the rules – or lack thereof – always benefit the Congress first, constituents (maybe) later.

If I was Dictator for a Day (and I am not a dictator) I’d dictate that an Amendment be passed enforcing a single term limit on every Member of Congress. In fact, a single term limit should apply to every elected federal official. Some have advocated one term is not enough to learn Washington and get things done. I say balderdash. Make the term a little longer but keep it to one. Otherwise you have the dilemma of a Member winning office and immediately starting the campaign for Term 2.

Term Limits is popular. The Heritage Foundation states “The only serious opponents of term limits are incumbent politicians and the special interests -- particularly labor unions -- that support them.”

There is one path to Term Limits. TermLimits.com suggests using the Constitution itself to do an end-run around Congress:

“It is highly unlikely that Congress would ever willingly pass an amendment to limit their own power. Congressional term limits would forcibly introduce turnover, routinely drawing a new and diverse class of people to serve their country instead of making a permanent career out of public office.

“The only way to legally force this change is through the state legislatures using the Article V amendment process. If 34 states sign up, they can force an Article V convention limited only to the topic of term limits. Once ratified by 38 states, it becomes law, bypassing Congress entirely.”

I’d say let’s try the end-run. It’s time someone besides Congress gets to score, time to end their use of this exclusive Congressional Rags-to-Riches path.

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