ROBERT SPENCER: Don’t These People Ever Go Away? “The answer is on the bottom line. Six of the fifteen richest counties in the country are in Virginia and Maryland, right outside Washington, D.C. Public service in the United States has become a lucrative exercise in mutual back-slapping, with numerous well-heeled lobbies eager to pay a cash-strapped congressman or senator outlandish speaker’s fees after he gets them what they want on the legislative floor.”