Corruption my friend. From a severely flawed election process that leaves incumbents beholding to donators. Once they're in office, lobbyists who should be arrested for attempted bribery are allowed to offer graft of one kind or another to get incumbents to swing cash or privilege to their group or interests. Congressmen have a much better chance of being wealthy than the general public, and that is very wrong. They should receive the same salary as the average american, and have to live with the same medical coverage and laws as the rest of us.