Limbaugh: Biden's too Poor to Manage the Economy

[General Zod]

Sauce.

(CNN) — Joe Biden's newly released tax returns appear to confirm what the Democratic VP candidate has long contended — he is among the poorest U.S. senators currently serving.

At least half the nation’s senators are millionaires. But Biden and his wife Jill earned a relatively small $320,000 in 2006, paying about $66,000 in taxes. Over the last 10 years Biden and his wife earned just shy of $2.5 million — an average income of roughly $245,000 per year.

The Obama campaign released the 10 years worth of documents earlier Friday, in part to pressure the McCain campaign to do the same with Sarah Palin and her husband Todd's returns.

“The last eight years have brought Americans' faith in their government to its lowest point in over thirty years," Obama spokesman Josh Earnest said. "The only answer is to change the way we do business in Washington. That starts with something as simple as transparency. That's why Senator Biden is releasing his tax returns for the last 10 years."

A McCain aide told CNN Friday the campaign would release Palin's documents, but on their "own timeframe."

The Bidens' returns do not specify the various sources of the income, but the Delaware Democrat earns $165,000 per year as a senator and draws roughly $20,000 annually from his visiting law professorship at Widener University. Jill Biden is a teacher in Delaware and draws a salary of about $66,000. The 2007 tax returns also indicate Biden earned $71,000 in royalties for his book "Promises to Keep."

Biden, who does not hold a second residence in Washington and commutes back to Delaware daily via Amtrak train, often jokes about his relatively poor financial standing on the campaign trail. His modes net worth is also touted by the Obama campaign as a sign Biden has not become a creature of Washington or a fixture on its cocktail circuit.

"I make a good salary, although I am listed as the second-poorest man in this Congress," Biden said in Missouri last week. "I’m not proud of it. I’m not proud of it. But that’s what happens when you get elected when you’re 29 years old."

The newly released tax returns also show the Bidens have given substantially less to charity as a proportion of their income than both Barack Obama and John McCain. In 2007, Biden donated $995 to charitable organizations, or 0.3 percent of his pre-taxed income. That compares to the 5.7 percent of income the Obamas donated to charity last year and the 26 percent John McCain gave away.

As a U.S. senator, Biden released a financial disclosure form earlier this year in which he valued his assets at between $59,000 and $360,000. He also reported liabilities of between $140,000 and $365,000.

"When the last listing came out, they listed my net worth as between 70 and 150,000 dollars and Rush Limbaugh said ‘How can this guy manage our economy, he doesn’t have any money?’" Biden also said at that Missouri campaign stop. "Well, I thought the deal was, when you went to work for the government you weren’t supposed to make money!"

I don't think this should be shocking to anyone, but it's really rather telling about the Republitard mindset. According to idiots like Limbaugh if you don't make millions of personal dollars you're not qualified to manage the government's money. Maybe it's just me but I'd imagine people who make less would be far more capable, since they're acutely aware of things like budget limits.

[tim31]

Single most retarded thing I've heard out of a political commentator's mouth, at least for this election. 245K a year? Yeah, that's struggling. Is Limbaugh really that out of touch with reality?? In the postwar years, Australian Prime Minister Ben Chifley stayed at a motel because it was cheaper than living at the official residence, most labor MPs stayed at this same hotel, and as a true man of the people, he was seen wandering to the communal showers every morning to wash and shave with everyone else.

Politicians forget too easy that they are public servants. Tony Blair bitching about 'struggling' on an MP's salary while his lawyer mates made big bucks was intolerable.

[Mayabird]

I'd say the mindset needs to be more generalized: If a Democrat does it, it's bad, even if it turns out to be hypocritical or contradictory to other bad things that others do.

Come on, this is Limbaugh. He's the drug addict who railed against addicts until everyone found out he was one, but when that happened it was a-ok!

[Uraniun235]

Limbaugh finally comes and says that only rich people can be trusted to lead the nation. Cool.

[weemadando]

You know, I'd honestly prefer a countries economy to be run by someone who has had the experience of having to run a tight fucking budget to keep their family with a roof over their heads and with food on their plates. Not someone who's greatest financial struggle has been making sure that they can afford to keep their coke habit at 1k a day or that they can take the Gulfstream and not the Learjet.

[Sriad]

I wouldn't be at all surprised if Limbaugh said something to this effect, but the article is quoting Biden at a campaign event, quoting Rush. I'm sure it's a quite common mindset in the Fucking Rich section of the Republican Venn diagram.

Just, you know, to keep the indignation proportional to the primacy of the source.

[SpacedTeddyBear]

Limbaugh finally comes and says that only rich people can be trusted to lead the nation. Cool.

But that's elitism! You want someone who can identify with the common blue collar worker to be in the White House.

[Stormbringer]

If that doesn't under cut the message of "country first" I don't know what does. Openly admitting that elected officials should be profiting significantly from their service is disgusting. If I didn't know Limbaugh's M.O. already, I'd be surprised that he came out and said such a thing given his part has been rocked by numerous charges of corruption.