Bill and Hillary Clinton: Republican super rich

[Fire Fly]

CNN

Clinton releases tax returns
Posted: 04:06 PM ET

(CNN) — Hillary Clinton released her tax returns for the years 2000 to 2006 late Friday afternoon, ending weeks of speculation over her delay in making them public.

“The Clintons have now made public thirty years of tax returns, a record matched by few people in public service,” spokesman Jay Carson said in a statement. “None of Hillary Clinton's presidential opponents have revealed anything close to this amount of personal financial information.”

The campaign said the records showed Bill and Hillary Clinton had paid more than $33.7 million in federal taxes on a joint income of $109 million and donated $10.2 million to charities over the past eight years.

The New York senator had initially said that she would not release them unless she was the Democratic nominee. But at a debate shortly before the March 4 primaries, she said she would consider releasing them "even earlier," though she did not name a precise date.

"I will certainly work toward releasing them, and we will get that done and in the public domain," said Clinton.

Later, she pledged to release the documents by this year's April 15 tax filing deadline. But ten days ago, following Obama's decision to release his tax returns of this decade, and attacks from his campaign over Clinton's delay in making her own public, she announced that she would release the returns within the week.

The Obama campaign's criticism centered on Clinton's decision to lend her campaign $5 million earlier this year, along with former President Bill Clinton's $20 million payout from supermarket holding company Yucaipa.

In conference calls with reporters, Clinton campaign spokesman Howard Wolfson accused the Obama campaign of unfounded negative attacks over the delay, noting that there were "20 years of Clinton tax returns in the public record."

The tax returns are the second of three batches of documents Clinton has come under pressure to release. Her scheduling records that date to her time as First Lady were released late last month. The list of major donors to the Clinton Presidential Library has yet to be released.

–CNN Associate Political Editor Rebecca Sinderbrand

(Full statement below; complete returns are available here.)
Hillary and Bill Clinton Tax Returns
Statement of Jay Carson
Clinton Campaign Spokesman
April 4, 2008

Today Senator Hillary Clinton and President Bill Clinton are releasing their tax returns for the years 2000 through 2006, and are providing information regarding their 2007 taxes as well.

The Clintons have now made public thirty years of tax returns, a record matched by few people in public service. None of Hillary Clinton's presidential opponents have revealed anything close to this amount of personal financial information.

What the Clintons' tax returns show is that they paid more than $33,000,000 in federal taxes and donated more than $10,000,000 to charities over the past eight years. They paid taxes and made charitable contributions at a higher rate than taxpayers at their income level.

TAXES PAID: $33,783,507

The Clintons paid $33,783,507 in federal taxes - 31% of their adjusted gross income. According to the most recent data available from the IRS, in 2005 taxpayers earning $10,000,000 or more paid on average 20.8% of their adjusted gross income in taxes.

CHARITABLE CONTRIBUTIONS: $10,256,741

The Clintons donated $10,256,741 to charity - 9.5% of their adjusted gross income. According to the most recent data available from the IRS, in 2005 taxpayers earning $10,000,000 or more contributed 3.1% of their adjusted gross income in cash contributions to charity. Information about the Clinton Family Foundation, including a list of charities to which the Clintons contributed through the Foundation, is available online in the Foundation's publicly available tax returns (www.foundationcenter.org).

AFTER TAX EARNINGS: $57,157,297

CUMULATIVE TOTAL(GROSS) INCOME: $109,175,175

Including, among other items:

Senator Clinton's Senate Salary: $1,051,606
President Clinton's Presidential Pension: $1,217,250
Senator Clinton's Book Income: $10,457,083
President Clinton's Book Income: $29,580,525
President Clinton's Speech Income: $51,855,599

SENATOR CLINTON'S BOOK INCOME: $10,457,083

Senator Clinton's book income is comprised of earnings for Living History ($10,267,895), including an $8,000,000 advance, and It Takes a Village ($189,188). The earnings for It Takes a Village were donated to charity. Since the release of It Takes a Village in 1996, Senator Clinton has donated over $1,100,000 to charity.

PRESIDENT CLINTON'S BOOK INCOME: $29,580,525

President Clinton's book income is comprised of earnings for My Life ($23,280,525), including a $15,000,000 advance, and Giving ($6,300,000). The President donated $1,000,000 of his income from Giving in 2007 to charity.

PRESIDENT CLINTON'S SPEECH INCOME: $51,855,599

NOTE: The figures in this summary include 2007 estimates.

Annual tax information is available for download below:

2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007
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No wonder she didn't want to release her tax returns. I knew they had money but never did I ever imagine that they would be hundred millionaires. I recall estimates placed the Clintons in the $35 million range but this completely blows it out of the water. Eat your heart out John Edwards; there's a new rich kid in town.

[Mr Bean]

57 millon dollars? Damn, that's not "insert Republican bigwig" rich, but that falls under my definition of "rich"

OAN: As I said she's learning but slowely, get everything out of the way now makes it ten times harder to bring up later since people already know about it, she should have released everything in one swoop, dealt with five bad news day's and then had nothing left to talk except to bring up Monica again and be set.

[Guardsman Bass]

Not only that, but most of their money was made by selling their "experiences", whether by book or speaking tour. Hell, that's pretty much an incentive to get elected and make waves in of itself - you can negotiate a very nice book deal at the very minimum, which you don't even have to write (you get a ghostwriter to do it based off of your interviews).

[Cairber]

I just saw a news report about Clinton involvement in the investment firm Yucaipa; apparently at the same time she was criticizing the Dubai port deal, she and her husband were making a lot of cash from the investment firm that Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum heads up in partnership. I don't really understand it all yet since it was just a short piece and am currently looking for a solid news story on it...right now just seeing early blogs.

[ArmorPierce]

Oh wow, and people were making a big deal about obama's income jumping from 200k to 1 million a year. This totally and completely blows that out of the water.

[Ubiquitous]

ZMOG she earns a lot of money!!

...why does this change anything? I remember John Kerry having a shit load of money, and people still voted for him. Why should we care?

[Fire Fly]

ZMOG she earns a lot of money!!

...why does this change anything? I remember John Kerry having a shit load of money, and people still voted for him. Why should we care?

Its not the numbers which really matter but the source of the income. Part of their investment has ties with characters who would rather stay out of the media spot light.

[Edi]

The most interesting part of that article is the figures for the average tax rates and average contributions to charity from people who make €10M or more and it utterly demolishes the "we don't need any government programs because we have charity" fuckwit arguments. Hoboy am I going to quote that at republitards in the future...

I fucking pay more in taxes than the rich Americans, currently 25% of my income, which is less than €30k per year before taxes.

[Glocksman]

The real problem with the US income tax structure is that capital gains, no matter how large, are taxed at one rate (IIRC, 15%), while wage income is subject to progressive rates.

This is what lead to Warren Buffet's observation about his income tax rate being 17% while his receptionist's tax rate was over 30%.

[ArmorPierce]

The tax ceiling at 15% for capital gains is really retarded and its basically a "get out of high taxes for rich people" scheme.

[Keevan_Colton]

Holy Fuck! The Presidential pension and Senator pay are both over a million?

The PM and other MP's here are more than an order of magnitude less that that in pay!

[Fire Fly]

Holy Fuck! The Presidential pension and Senator pay are both over a million?

The PM and other MP's here are more than an order of magnitude less that that in pay!

I think that's their accumulated total so far. From here it says that a senator's pay rate is $169,300 per year and I think a president's pension is in the same order of magnitude also.

[Sea Skimmer]

Holy Fuck! The Presidential pension and Senator pay are both over a million?

No, that is the cumulative total for 2000-2006 and may include 2007, that article isn’t being super clear. When the president is in office pay is 400,000 USD per year plus something like 75 grand for expenses, senators make about 160,000 and also get a hefty allowance for office and travel expenses. Both get real nice pension packages, but they are significantly less then the full salary.

[Phantasee]

IIRC the President is supposed to be the highest paid person in the government. His pay rate is supposed to set the standard for every public employee.

[The Grim Squeaker]

Holy Fuck! The Presidential pension and Senator pay are both over a million?

No, that is the cumulative total for 2000-2006 and may include 2007, that article isn’t being super clear. When the president is in office pay is 400,000 USD per year plus something like 75 grand for expenses, senators make about 160,000 and also get a hefty allowance for office and travel expenses. Both get real nice pension packages, but they are significantly less then the full salary.

Wasn't the presidents salary doubled only after Bush came into office?
http://www.senate.gov/reference/resourc ... 98-249.pdf - This has it as 191,000USD.

[Ubiquitous]

Holy Fuck! The Presidential pension and Senator pay are both over a million?

No, that is the cumulative total for 2000-2006 and may include 2007, that article isn’t being super clear. When the president is in office pay is 400,000 USD per year plus something like 75 grand for expenses, senators make about 160,000 and also get a hefty allowance for office and travel expenses. Both get real nice pension packages, but they are significantly less then the full salary.

Wasn't the presidents salary doubled only after Bush came into office?
http://www.senate.gov/reference/resourc ... 98-249.pdf - This has it as 191,000USD.

That's a pretty shitty wage considering the stress of being President.

[CmdrWilkens]

Wasn't the presidents salary doubled only after Bush came into office?
http://www.senate.gov/reference/resourc ... 98-249.pdf - This has it as 191,000USD.

That's a pretty shitty wage considering the stress of being President.[/quote]

Well considering that MOST of his expenses are paid for by the government (his household staff, the travel, etc are all governmental expenses) he really doesn't have all that much he needs to spend money on. Clothes and trinkets are about all that aren' paid for on the government's dime not his.

[Mr Bean]

Well considering that MOST of his expenses are paid for by the government (his household staff, the travel, etc are all governmental expenses) he really doesn't have all that much he needs to spend money on. Clothes and trinkets are about all that aren' paid for on the government's dime not his.

To be exact the following are covered
-Housing
-Utilities
-Food, in fact he has several chief's at his beck and call
-His entire staff, Naval Stewards for Butler Duties, SS for Security, plus he has hundreds of people to assist him with that whole "goverment" thing he has to do from time to time.
-All Travel Expense

The only thing not payed for is the clothes on his back, and prehaps a Playstation III, I know the White-House has a budget for things like TV and cable and of course phone service.

So the 200k a year Salary? All the books, video games and clothing you want, feel free, since everything else is covered. He wants to take a Vaction in Japan? Call it a state visit, spend one day talking with the PM for six days on the beach somewhere.

[CmdrWilkens]

Small note the 400k is correct, sometime around about 2001/2002 they double the Presiden'ts salary as prior to that he was not the highest paid politician in the US but now he is.

TITLE 3 > CHAPTER 2 > § 102

§ 102. Compensation of the President

The President shall receive in full for his services during the term for which he shall have been elected compensation in the aggregate amount of $400,000 a year, to be paid monthly, and in addition an expense allowance of $50,000 to assist in defraying expenses relating to or resulting from the discharge of his official duties. Any unused amount of such expense allowance shall revert to the Treasury pursuant to section 1552 of title 31, United States Code. No amount of such expense allowance shall be included in the gross income of the President. He shall be entitled also to the use of the furniture and other effects belonging to the United States and kept in the Executive Residence at the White House.