APPLETON, Wis. – Following is the statement of Outagamie County Executive and pro-labor populist Tom Nelson in response to Sen. Ron Johnson’s lament today on WSAU that his net worth merely doubled, instead of tripled or quadrupled, during his disgraceful two terms in the U.S. Senate (full quote below*).

Nelson has been an outspoken advocate of efforts to ban stock trading among members of Congress.

“So many Wisconsin workers are suffering in this rigged economy and instead of representation in the Senate, they get a whiny billionaire-son-in-law who is complaining about not being even richer.

When he’s not embarrassing Wisconsin with putrid COVID misinformation and treason propaganda, Johnson is doing the bidding of the corporate special interests who have shuttered our factories, destroyed the heritage of our family farms and ensured that workers beg on their belly for lower wages and fewer benefits.

The corrupt practice of trading stocks on insider information is part of the reason that many members of Congress have enriched themselves in office while the real wages of workers have remained stagnant FOR DECADES.

Johnson is rich because he married rich, not by any sweat of his brow. It’s time to retire him so he can spend more time with his money.”

*On WSAU today, Johnson said:

“The stock market has gone up almost 4 times since I’ve been in the United States Senate. So had I been invested heavily in the stock market I probably should’ve increased my wealth 4 times … The fact that I’ve gone up only double, I’ve way underperformed the market… I hate to say this, but the stock market went up 3.8 times. I went up 2.”

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