October 21, 2011 2:06 pm ET — Jamison Foser

Last night, Senate Republicans — with help from two Democrats and an independent who caucuses with Democrats — killed a bill that would have provided $35 billion for struggling states to hire teachers and first responders, paid for with a surtax of one-half of one percent on income over $1 million. That surtax was not only quite small, it also would have applied to almost nobody, as Greg Sargent has explained.

To most people, asking a tiny handful of millionaires to pay a little bit more in order to hire teachers and firefighters and help the economy is a no-brainer: A CNN poll last week found 75 percent of Americans favor such aid to state governments, and 76 percent support increasing taxes on people who make more than $1 million a year. And yet 50 senators voted against legislation that would do just that.

It's worth noting that those 50 senators don't have much in common with the constituents they represent. For one thing, they have far more money. Only 375 Maine residents — out of 1.3 million — would be affected by a surcharge on income over $1 million — but Sen. Olympia Snowe appears to be one of them, due largely to her husband's income. Snowe's income may be uncommon among senators, but most of her colleagues who joined her in protecting millionaires at the expense of teachers and firefighters are also far more wealthy than the people they represent.

The Center for Responsive Politics (CRP) estimates senators' net worth based on their financial disclosure filings. Because those filings provide ranges, rather than precise values, CRP calculates an "average" net worth that is the midpoint of the possible range for each senator. Using CRP's methodology, the 50 senators who voted to protect millionaires last night have a combined net worth of $401 million — for an average of about $8 million per senator. The median net worth of the 50 senators is about $1.8 million. By comparison, the median net worth for all U.S. households was $70,000 in 2009:

Thirty-five of the 50 senators have a net worth more than ten times as high as the national median. Thirty-two have an estimated net worth of at least $1 million each. A dozen have a net worth of at least $7 million each — 100 times the national median. Only three have an estimated net worth below the national median. And, of course, none of the 50 senators who voted against the jobs bill is unemployed. None is a schoolteacher. None is a firefighter. Maybe that has something to do with the fact that these senators are more concerned about millionaires than about the rest of the people they represent?

The 50 senators who voted against the jobs bill, with their estimated net worths:

(All calculations based on data compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics. Note that though some may do so, senators are not required to report "property or liabilities, including personal residences and their related mortgages, that are not held as investments and do not produce income.")