Of the three current contenders for the job of Thief in Chief, Hillary Clinton appears to be the most talented money grubber.
WASHINGTON — Propelled by her husband’s post-White House earnings, Sen. Hillary Clinton’s average net worth soared from red ink to $30.7 million between 2000 and 2006, the fastest financial climb among members of Congress who arrived without assets, a watchdog group reported Tuesday.
Arizona Sen. John McCain, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, reported a $27.6 million surge in his and his wife’s average worth from 1995 to 2006. Their worth rose over that 11-year period from an inflation-adjusted average of $8.9 million to $36.4 million, the ninth-biggest rise in Congress, the nonpartisan Sunlight Foundation reported.
The Sunlight Foundation posted on its Web site the first-ever comparison of the 535 House and Senate members’ latest available net worth with their earlier disclosure statements. The forms don’t require any explanation for shifts of fortune.
Many members of Congress have added significantly to their wealth while in office, such as Sen. Edward Kennedy’s jump from an average net worth of $7.1 million in 1995 to $102.8 million in 2006. But because lawmakers are allowed to list their assets in wide ranges and exclude homes that can be worth millions of dollars, the foundation acknowledged that the data may create misimpressions.
Democratic presidential front-runner Barack Obama’s average net worth rose from $328,442 in 2004, when he was elected to the Senate, to $799,006 in 2006. But counting Obama’s and his wife Michelle’s pricey Chicago home, he almost assuredly has joined the Senate’s “Millionaire’s Club.”
Next time you hear the shrill, harsh voice of your fearless pantsuit wearing potential leader, remember that she lines her pockets from the same pot of gold that her health care plan will be paid for from – yours.
The bottom line has a lot to do with why someone like Hillary Clinton wants to be in politics in the first place. Any person with a poorly developed moral compass who thinks it’s perfectly OK to redistribute wealth by force would be attracted to the shining lights of Washington, D.C. where strangers argue over how much money to steal from the rest of us and skim cents from each dollar that rolls in for their own silk-lined pockets.
HIllary’s base salary is $169,300 per year. She must be a very savvy investor to have turned that into $30 million plus.