Ever wonder the net worth of all our presidents?
I had a professor once who wondered how people went into politics poor but left wealthy. His example was LBJ, if I remember correctly.
A minor reason to be sure, but one of the reasons I like and respect president Obama is that he wasn’t outrageously wealthy before he ran for president. Was he even worth a million before declaring? As the link shows, the money he does have was primarily made from the sales of his books.
Which is why it always seemed unfair that a man raised genuinely middle class was consistently decried as an “elitist” by a career politician worth many millions.
In the words of Garrison Keillor:
And it’s an amazing country where an Arizona multimillionaire can attack a Chicago South Sider as an elitist and hope to make it stick. The Chicagoan was brought up by a single mom who had big ambitions for him, and he got scholarshipped into Harvard Law and was made president of the law review, all of it on his own hook, whereas the Arizonan is the son of an admiral and was ushered into Annapolis though an indifferent student, much like the Current Occupant, both of them men who are very lucky that their fathers were born before they were. The Chicagoan, who grew up without a father, wrote a book on his own, using a computer. The Arizonan hired people to write his for him. But because the Chicagoan can say what he thinks and make sense and the Arizonan cannot do that for more than 30 seconds at a time, the old guy is hoping to portray the skinny guy as arrogant.
Good luck with that, sir.
Note: Perhaps the pay, bennies, and job connections offset the high unexpected mortality rate due to assassination (attempts).
I prefer other career choices in this lifetime.
24/7 for four years = 100% silver hair, with the exception of Eisenhower.
I read General Patreus is considering a run.
Was he even worth a million before declaring?
He and Michelle made over $4 million in ‘07. I guess that’s not outrageous, but it’d be hard to paint them as paupers, either.
It’s not outrageous. but surely it’s too much…. I mean, there is a point when a person has earned enough, isn’t there? Seriously, I will probably not earn much more than 4 million in my lifetime, don’t I deserve some of his dough?
It’s not outrageous. but surely it’s too much…
I agree. He’s clearly one of the EVIL RICH. I think we all deserve a really big chunk of his stash.
LBJ did it by manipulating FCC policy and Federal Law to his advantage while in the House and Senate.
But if you REALLY want to see cap-gains, study US Senators over the years.
Legislating is good!!
Not our guy dad29
Feingold is the only senator who started out with the least net worth of any senator and continues to have the least.today.-almost 18 years later