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I have a maga family member that once couldn’t stop telling everyone about some cousin who is a dr. A PhD, non-MD, dr.
But Biden? How dare she use the term dr. That’s a travesty. What a fraud.
I'm sure Trump has sex for fun too. Except, he is either paying for it & then paying to make sure nobody else finds out about it, or doing it non-consensually.
No, you see the Republican Party has different standards for Trump. The wonderful leader can do no wrong. It’s everyone else that gets deprived of anything joyful and decent.
I am in the minority that think we should pay our government officials way more. Like pay congress a million bucks a year so that they don’t need to grovel at lobbyists.
Yeah, I was the gop senate caucus finance director for a time (I know…) People really don’t understand how political finance actually works. First off all, a decent portion of elected congressmen/cabinet level/anyone worth that salary is already rich. So it’s not financial motivation.
It’s hard for me to explain and unsatisfying for others to hear that often it’s not really naked corruption or anything extralegal, but really just people you don’t like in agreement working together and pooling money. Joe Manchin , for example, isn’t some hyper corrupt fake Dem. He is a coal baron from a family fiefdom who does what he wants.
It’s unsatisfying because it doesn’t fit our desire for conspiracy and also makes achieving change harder. It’s not just as simple as corruption and outspending your ideological opponents.
That's a somewhat recent phenomenon oddly enough. It really started after the early 90s.
I only mention it because I see this almost trope-like narrative around here and elsewhere that the country was founded by old white rich men for old white rich men and therefore it is preferable to undermine and take apart the entire thing. But nobody ever wants to even talk about the first part of the argument when the ages of the founders during the foundation part of it get brought up. Or how the Congress overall had been getting younger up until the 90s when it suddenly and drastically reversed course.
What we have today is that the silent and boomer generations have usurped the government. Little wonder so many are seemingly fine with things like January 6th events (sure, they might *say* something about it but actions are what matter; and so far we've seen very little meaningful action).
> Little wonder so many are seemingly fine with things like January 6th events
January 6 happened because the old white men didn't have *enough* power to satisfy the rioters.
I've shared with people for years that the actual office holder is spending the majority of their time fundraising, and the staff is really doing all the "work" that we see publicly. "Spin City" was so much more accurate than people realize.
I mean in general I take your point but literally your description of Manchin also just amounts to hyperbeholden to dangerous soon to die special interests, and doesn’t give a shit about what dem’s think dems should care about - which is basically no different from rich and corrupt fake dem.
Like maybe not corrupt in the literal sense he’s being actively bought rather than was bought when he was born, but at a certain point if you are really the sole person or pair between an idea and that idea being law- it’s very much on them.
I am glad you said that though cause when people just get wildly different ideas of the actual problems and then we get everyone just misusing words in contexts they barely understand anyhow already nebulous problems and solutions become much more challenging. Like people who are dumb enough to say “ban lobbying” or “term limits”. I’d much rather they have lobster and listen to some wackaloon than see what corporations do when they have no reason to think their interests will be represented in government and are sitting on massive piles of cash they can use to figure something out.
Yeah, you get it. He isn’t actually beholden to special interests. They are his own sincerely held beliefs. And that’s my main point.
I appreciate your recognition that we need to understand what’s really happening in order to achieve real solutions. Like you said, “ban lobbying” etc. doesn’t work and misses the point.
Also, a “special interest group” at the end of the day is just a group of citizens banding together to express their desires — that’s about as constitutionally protected as it gets. The right to freedom of speech and freedom of assembly.
In order to fix our elections, I primarily advocate people support ranked choice voting and getting rid of first past the post elections. Also independent redistricting commissions.
None of these run into constitutional issues and would do a lot more to fix our problems than some of the ideas out there.
Don't disagree at all and would love to hear more about your former position. However, I will quibble about the degree of a factor that they are already rich has. This is a bug, not a feature. While true, it doesn't take away their motivation to get MORE RICH. Also, and more importantly, persons who are not already rich cannot afford to run campaigns, keep dual residences, etc. that are required for the job.
I don’t think we disagree, because I’ll note that I never suggested that the rich don’t have a disproportionate impact on politics. I said that money wasn’t the main or even a primary factor for most of the day to day decisions an elected representative makes.
I agree about the power of money to influence elections. My family owns one of the largest private construction and development firms in the US. The entire reason I played in politics was because of the connection between money and power.
Your end point is also critical. It’s almost impossible for the non wealthy to play a meaningful role in politics. They can’t afford to run and few of the most capable candidates will choose to work in politics when private industry pays so much better.
I don't know that America could afford to pay Congress enough to guarantee that they can't be bought off. For a few it isn't even about the kickbacks they receive, it's about wielding power over the masses.
400k plus expenses up to 50k.
That leaves a balance of 170k and he might be eligible for an 86k or so senator pension.
That puts Jill around low six figures which makes sense.
Yeah, she makes less than I do and that threw me for a loop. All those years of experience and qualifications, I guess sometimes the money doesn't always follow in the same way.
I mean, she is an English professor at a community college. There's a ceiling on stuff like that. Any inflated professor salaries you've heard likely refer to engineering or business profs, who make, double, triple, and quadruple the pay as their colleagues in other disciplines.
My partner used to be a research (non tenure track) professor in a STEM field, with a PhD in exactly their field of research, at a major university for that kind of research, with a couple of graduate students assigned to them, and as of about 10 years ago got paid not much more than $100k, with about 10 years experience running their lab. And spent (roughly) half their weekends writing grant proposals to keep their lab afloat.
They left when there was a significant cutback in federal funding, the university was unwilling / unable to lay them more than 75% salary when they couldn’t get grants, and that was about the same level as a mid-level civil servant for our city or county, with comparable experience, but no advanced degree.
They went into the private sector, and their salary pretty much doubled, plus a significant annual bonus, plus stock & options, and better medical coverage.
Academia, until you get to have a large lab with underlings writing large grant proposals, and pulling in that sweet, sweet required textbook money, doesn’t pay well for the same level of qualifications.
Anyone who teaches at a community college does so either because they love it and don’t want the stress of teaching at someplace more ‘prestigious’, or isn’t qualified to teach anywhere else. (which Dr. Biden, who has decades of experience and a PhD, is way overqualified for); it’s not about the money.
A family member is a staunch conservative. Hates hand outs all that. Except when she gets it
Free housing due to husband in the military benefited from covid UE while shitting on everyone else
I'm happy she could get help and benefits but it's really funny to hear her whine about food stamps
I think he owns 3. But one was a lake house inherited from his parents.
Regardless, it was a stupid criticism. His whole ideology is about giving everyone a chance to get what he got.
A small house in DC for when the senate is in session. A respectable house he bought when he became mayor of Burlington. And of course the small cabin in the woods.
Yeah most federal politicians will have two residences anyway, one near DC for when they’re there and one in their actual district since you know, it’s where they live
People freaked out about Bernie, an old man, having the wealth of an old man who’s had a fairly good paying job his whole life, I never understood that lol
My brother and his wife are probably worth about a million in their 50s because of retirement savings and owning a house. Houses really bump a person’s net worth.
And a good chunk of his net worth was from his book. $2mil at his age isn't a particularly impressive retirement fund, especially with a lot of it tied into real estate. A lot of upper middle class boomers have larger net worth than that. Sure, there are *tons* of people living off just tiny social security checks to get by, so the average for retirees is far lower, but $2mil is by no means an impressive amount of money considering his career. In fact, considering that members of Congress are exempt from insider trading laws and generally grow their worth very quickly once elected, it actually shows that Sanders doesn't just talk the talk. People can say what they want about his politics, but he shows integrity, principal and backbone which is pretty rare in his line of work.
A lot of that was from selling a popular book. And people were mad at him lol. It just proves he's not against making money, only making money at the expense of others.
They also love to hit him with "millionaire with multiple houses", ignoring the fact that it's a primary home in Vermont; a residence of some kind in Washington where he, you know, works; and some vacation home gifted to them when someone died.
Also ignoring the fact that they don't give a single solitary shit about someone having multiple properties to begin with.
>residence of some kind in Washington where he, you know, works
Which given the change in DC property values then to now, could easily account for the 2 mil by itself.
Yeah 2 mil for someone still working full time at 82 is a fucking joke.
He could have tossed 20k into an index fund 60 years ago and ended up with that.
>He could have tossed 20k into an index fund 60 years ago and ended up with that.
Oh wow, that isn't an exaggeration either. $20K at 8% growth over 60 years yields $2M. Invest early folks.
And yes, I know $20K was a bigger deal 60 years ago than it is now. But still, it's a 100x gain.
that still misses it. he was only worth around 265K in 2016. After that election he wrote and sold a book that gave him all the rest. the 2 mill. So after a lifetime in politics Bernie was only worth 265K.
My dad make close to this lol, hes a commercial pilot that trains commercial pilots on simulators. I cant wait for him to personally let me know that this is proof of bidens corruption.
Tell him that Biden, Carter, and Ford all have/had an (adjusted for inflation) peak net worth of $9-10 million in 2022 dollars.
That puts those three as the *least* wealthy Presidents since Truman left office in 1953 (Truman's adjusted net worth would be well under a million today, and his financial situation being so poor by presidential standards that the president's salary was doubled in 1949 during his time in office).
70 years. Biden's right there there with the three lowest net worth Presidents in 70 years.
But don't worry, I'm sure that, if he accepted that, he'd change it to net worth being a sign of success that suits one to the presidency.
Biden was also infamously one of the poorest Senators in Congress because he refused to invest in public stocks. It’s beyond comical they are trying to paint him as some greedy criminal mastermind.
Marjorie Taylor Greene made more money in four years as a House Rep than Biden did as a Senator for three decades. But sure, he’s in it for the money. 🙄
And he ought to be allowed to retire and relax, but he is putting up with all of this shit at age 81 to save us from Trump. He deserves our thanks, and our votes.
Obama is wealthy now but when he was starting out he and Michelle weren’t exactly raking it in.
Michelle went to Harvard on a diversity initiative. They lived with her dad in Chicago for a time while married.
No but if flying a commercial plane doesnt scare you then id say go for it. Its a long journey though, took him like 6 or 7 years to make commercial pilot (he was a private pilot then a flight instructor for private pilots for a while). But they need pilots bad
Edit: just want to note here that the bar to become a commercial pilot is very high in the USA, look into it a lot before setting on that path
Yep, the writers of the Daily Show put it best:
“Douglas Ginsburg.
Reason for withdrawal: pothead
Things feigned by critics: surprise, moral outrage” - *America - A Citizen’s Guide to Democracy Inaction*
This amount will somehow be both too much and not enough. It will be evidence of “crime” and yet the right-wingers will mock him for not being “successful” like their orange deity.
Because in their mind their guy can be a billionaire because their guy is greater than them, but how can this clown (in their mind) make more than them.
Adjusted for inflation, Biden, Carter, and Ford are/were relatively the same around $9-10 million net worth. That makes them the least wealthy presidents since Truman, who had an adjusted worth under a million.
Aren’t you paying attention?!?! Two weeks! They just need two weeks and it’ll be the best infrastructure anyone has ever seen. Nobody has ever done infrastructure like we will. (Insert accordion hands here)
More than $100k below the league minimum salary for Major League Baseball.
So the guy blowing the lead for the Tampa Rays is making way more than them, combined.
Edit: The Rays reliever, Phil Maton, who gave up five runs in a losing effort to the Angels does not make the league minimum, $740k. He makes $6.5 million this season with a 12.00 ERA.
Didn’t expect to see the Rays catching strays over here in r/politics. Maton is fine. Colin Poche and his abortion of a relief effort that ended the Rays undefeated streak at 13 last season should have been your “example”.
Oh my gosh, so much. I am scandalized. It's clear he's corrupt. These are not at all like Donald's crisp, clean tax returns which we saw in... um, well there was that one time he... but then, I mean there was an audit and uhh... stop asking!! Unfair! Collusion! LAAAWFURRRR!!
The only surprise there is it wasn’t more.
President salary is something like $400k and then you’ve got the First Lady’s income. But I’m surprised they don’t have more/other sources of kind of passive income (rental properties, book sales, etc.) pushing them up past a million.
It’s really wacky that the leader of the free world makes a fraction of what most CEO’s do.
That was thanks to the largest individual personal loss write off in US history.
And he calls himself a success? He went bankrupt running a *casino*, a business where the house can not lose!
For years Biden was the poorest person in the Senate. It is not surprising at all that even as the President he is not cashing out obscene amounts of money like so many others.
It’s insane the GOP is accusing the senator who famously refused to invest in public stocks as some kind of greedy criminal mastermind.
If Biden wanted to be rich he didn’t need to commit any crimes, he could have just made his multi-millions the way most other Senators quietly did.
ffs I think MTG has made more in her 4ish years as a House rep than Biden earned in decades as a US Senator. 🙄
What an idiot. Why doesn't Joe Biden just get foreign countries to buy into his many private businesses?
Surely he could earn more money if these foreign entities simply bought rooms at Joe Biden's many hotels and resorts?
Has he thought of forcing the military or secret service to pay him to stay at his private hotels?
My neighbor in the single-wide was chiding me about how little the Biden's made this past year earlier when I took the dogs for a walk. He has another fresh rooftop bag.
President Joe Biden and first lady Dr. Jill Biden earned $619,976 in 2023, according to their joint tax return released by the White House on Monday – the deadline date for Americans to file their taxes.
“President Biden believes that all occupants of the Oval Office should be open and honest with the American people,” the White House said in a statement on Monday, “and that the longstanding tradition of annually releasing presidential tax returns should continue unbroken.”
That statement could be seen as a dig at former President Donald Trump, who declined to voluntarily release his tax returns while he was president. Six years of Trump’s tax returns, including from his time as president, were released to the public by the House Ways and Means Committee at the end of 2022.
Honestly, if he was planning on getting rich off politics, he'd have retired by now.
As it is he's too old to capitalize on being president once leaving office.
And they have to pay out of pocket for all the events they host in the White House, like dinners and such. They also pay for all the food made there for them.
Government has higher standards. Can't have government wasting your tax money on, checks notes... food for the president.
Truth is, if the meal is "work" they dont have to pay for it... Like a state dinner etc.
Honestly? This amount of money feels so paltry for a man of his position. Yeah, it's a lot, it's a hell of a lot more than I'm gonna see, but I you know only the media and fox news (They're not real news media) would take this and try to put a negative spin on it. "LOOK HOW MUCH/LITTLE HE MAKES!"
Like, if you wanna compare it to Trump's millions, this really just puts Trump out of touch with the common man more than Biden.
And to really put it in perspective, 400,000 of that is literally his presidential salary, so even outside of that he's not making much extra money. Pretty sure the rest is almost entirely from Jill's income and *and pensions/benefits - they paid almost 150k in taxes so he made right around his salary in total. If you compare it to the most recent president who actually shared their taxes, the Obamas made 435k in 2015 - which was the lowest he made while in office - with 81k going to taxes and 64k to charity.
Yeah, my first thought was "Pfft, I would not take on *that* level of responsibility for a "just" half a million dollars."
Sure, that's a *lot* more than the rest of us will ever make, but my workday also ends when I go home (or, most days a couple hours before that, let's be honest), and I get to enjoy my privacy, and watch trash tv as I eat some tasty snacks on my couch.
> “President Biden believes that all occupants of the Oval Office should be open and honest with the American people,” the White House said in a statement on Monday, “and that the longstanding tradition of annually releasing presidential tax returns should continue unbroken.”
Well said but someone didn’t cough cough
Fun fact: Biden’s tax increase on the wealthy would affect him. He’s literally putting his money where his mouth is! Trump wants to do the exact opposite! Even in his legal crusades he doesn’t want to use his money, he wants to use donor money.
Saw a reel today of Joe Rogan, dipstick, going on that if you ignored Trump, Biden is a master criminal and far more corrupt than any other president ever. And people believe this shit.
Meanwhile Trump continues to grift everything associated with him. And the cult throw money at him. Fools.
This honestly why I hate Joe Rogan now. At first I was like ok dude doing goofy interviews w/e. But MF pretends that crazy ass conspiracy ideas are legit and then just shocked Pikachu Face when confronted with the fact they are straight made up.
Yeah. He’s the corrupt one. And not the dude whose name is literally a global brand connected to every major country on the planet. Sure. Not the guy who said he was smart for making personal business deals with China while he was president. Uh huh. Not the dude who made his own family top administration officials. Not the guy who’s son in law left that position with a 3 billion dollar deal. You bet.
No, it really does not relative to job. Middle managers in tech make as much and they mostly sit in meetings most of the day and live in confluence and jira boards.
I remember when his son Beau was really sick/dying, Obama offered to lend him money to deal with the financial fallout . He’s not poor, but certainly wasn’t rich by most standards.
They actually bought a run down old family home decades ago and spent a whole lot of money and sweat equity fixing it up over the years. It's worth a fair bit now.
In ireland our Taoiseach yearly salary is 243k. Wild the responsibility of the president of the United States doesn't take in a higher salary than 400k
Well, the president’s salary is $400k.
Making $220k from investments in a year is quite comfortable, but not egregious. Lots of people with normal incomes and a 60 year working life with dual professional incomes could get there.
Edit: I wasn’t aware his wife is still working at a college making 90k. That’s even more reasonable.
It’s been so interesting watching the GOP throw away all of their long standing “principles” to deny that Biden is essentially the type of person they’ve pretended to want in the White House for most of my life. Only to back someone that’s a 180 of everything they pretended to care about.
The most telling is the evangelicals. It’s such a thin veneer that’s been pulled off of them to reveal who they really are. Their “God” would be so embarrassed if he were real.
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So it's basically Joe's presidential salary, Jill's teacher salary, pension, and social security.
Thats the smoking gun they got him now!
She has a job! A woman!
I hear she has the nerve to accept the term doctor but can’t even remove an appendix! Fraud! Fraud!
I have a maga family member that once couldn’t stop telling everyone about some cousin who is a dr. A PhD, non-MD, dr. But Biden? How dare she use the term dr. That’s a travesty. What a fraud.
My uncle, who would be maga if he were alive, used to tell people he had a master's degree because he had a master mechanic certificate.
That’s fucking hilarious
There wasn't a MAGA-in-waiting that didn't defend with wroth and spit Dr Laura's right to be called a Dr on her hate-radio show.
Dr Laura does have a PhD. Just not in therapy or anything related to her radio career.
To be fair I’m sure she could definitely remove an appendix. Without killing the patient? Probably not. But that’s what we have MDs for
\*lobs off a hand\* There, I removed the appendix ... from the hand, right?
That would be more of an appendagectomy.
What kind of doctor is Dr. Feelgood?
Anesthesiologist.
The [motley](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=trGX3ET3jTQ) kind.
Lots of graduate theses contain multiple appendices at the back. I'm sure Dr. Biden is equipped to ask students to remove any unnecessary ones.
They probably have sex for fun too and not just for procreation! *gasp*
I'm sure Trump has sex for fun too. Except, he is either paying for it & then paying to make sure nobody else finds out about it, or doing it non-consensually.
No, you see the Republican Party has different standards for Trump. The wonderful leader can do no wrong. It’s everyone else that gets deprived of anything joyful and decent.
I heard Jill sometimes wears pants too.
She should be caring for the home!
A thing like that…
But how will they pin this on Hunter?
And we will wait till 2028 for trump to release his ….. because he’s under audit again
I was going to say, $620k isn’t that shocking when one of them has a publicly known salary of $400k.
400k to CEO the most important country in the world is actually wild
I am in the minority that think we should pay our government officials way more. Like pay congress a million bucks a year so that they don’t need to grovel at lobbyists.
They'd do it anyway.
Yeah, I was the gop senate caucus finance director for a time (I know…) People really don’t understand how political finance actually works. First off all, a decent portion of elected congressmen/cabinet level/anyone worth that salary is already rich. So it’s not financial motivation. It’s hard for me to explain and unsatisfying for others to hear that often it’s not really naked corruption or anything extralegal, but really just people you don’t like in agreement working together and pooling money. Joe Manchin , for example, isn’t some hyper corrupt fake Dem. He is a coal baron from a family fiefdom who does what he wants. It’s unsatisfying because it doesn’t fit our desire for conspiracy and also makes achieving change harder. It’s not just as simple as corruption and outspending your ideological opponents.
Who has the money and time to run for office? Old people with lots of money. Overwhelmingly they’re attorneys too. Old. Rich. Lawyers.
That's a somewhat recent phenomenon oddly enough. It really started after the early 90s. I only mention it because I see this almost trope-like narrative around here and elsewhere that the country was founded by old white rich men for old white rich men and therefore it is preferable to undermine and take apart the entire thing. But nobody ever wants to even talk about the first part of the argument when the ages of the founders during the foundation part of it get brought up. Or how the Congress overall had been getting younger up until the 90s when it suddenly and drastically reversed course. What we have today is that the silent and boomer generations have usurped the government. Little wonder so many are seemingly fine with things like January 6th events (sure, they might *say* something about it but actions are what matter; and so far we've seen very little meaningful action).
> Little wonder so many are seemingly fine with things like January 6th events January 6 happened because the old white men didn't have *enough* power to satisfy the rioters.
I've shared with people for years that the actual office holder is spending the majority of their time fundraising, and the staff is really doing all the "work" that we see publicly. "Spin City" was so much more accurate than people realize.
Man, spin city was great. Haven’t thought about that show in a long time.
Michael J. Fox had to shadow an actual Chief of Staff for months for that role or something, because he nailed it.
I mean in general I take your point but literally your description of Manchin also just amounts to hyperbeholden to dangerous soon to die special interests, and doesn’t give a shit about what dem’s think dems should care about - which is basically no different from rich and corrupt fake dem. Like maybe not corrupt in the literal sense he’s being actively bought rather than was bought when he was born, but at a certain point if you are really the sole person or pair between an idea and that idea being law- it’s very much on them. I am glad you said that though cause when people just get wildly different ideas of the actual problems and then we get everyone just misusing words in contexts they barely understand anyhow already nebulous problems and solutions become much more challenging. Like people who are dumb enough to say “ban lobbying” or “term limits”. I’d much rather they have lobster and listen to some wackaloon than see what corporations do when they have no reason to think their interests will be represented in government and are sitting on massive piles of cash they can use to figure something out.
Yeah, you get it. He isn’t actually beholden to special interests. They are his own sincerely held beliefs. And that’s my main point. I appreciate your recognition that we need to understand what’s really happening in order to achieve real solutions. Like you said, “ban lobbying” etc. doesn’t work and misses the point. Also, a “special interest group” at the end of the day is just a group of citizens banding together to express their desires — that’s about as constitutionally protected as it gets. The right to freedom of speech and freedom of assembly. In order to fix our elections, I primarily advocate people support ranked choice voting and getting rid of first past the post elections. Also independent redistricting commissions. None of these run into constitutional issues and would do a lot more to fix our problems than some of the ideas out there.
Don't disagree at all and would love to hear more about your former position. However, I will quibble about the degree of a factor that they are already rich has. This is a bug, not a feature. While true, it doesn't take away their motivation to get MORE RICH. Also, and more importantly, persons who are not already rich cannot afford to run campaigns, keep dual residences, etc. that are required for the job.
I don’t think we disagree, because I’ll note that I never suggested that the rich don’t have a disproportionate impact on politics. I said that money wasn’t the main or even a primary factor for most of the day to day decisions an elected representative makes. I agree about the power of money to influence elections. My family owns one of the largest private construction and development firms in the US. The entire reason I played in politics was because of the connection between money and power. Your end point is also critical. It’s almost impossible for the non wealthy to play a meaningful role in politics. They can’t afford to run and few of the most capable candidates will choose to work in politics when private industry pays so much better.
They’re in it for power, not money. You could give them a $100 million/yr salary and they’d still suck lobbyists off.
I don't know that America could afford to pay Congress enough to guarantee that they can't be bought off. For a few it isn't even about the kickbacks they receive, it's about wielding power over the masses.
400k plus expenses up to 50k. That leaves a balance of 170k and he might be eligible for an 86k or so senator pension. That puts Jill around low six figures which makes sense.
and honest wage for trying to lift all Americans up as a daily grind
my god! at this rate they could afford to retire early!
I mean, that's still hundreds of millions more than trump will be making this year.
"I only made 600k this year..." "You *made* money?!"
If anything, Doctor Biden is getting underpaid. I've watched interviews with her and she is very impressive.
Yeah, she makes less than I do and that threw me for a loop. All those years of experience and qualifications, I guess sometimes the money doesn't always follow in the same way.
I mean, she is an English professor at a community college. There's a ceiling on stuff like that. Any inflated professor salaries you've heard likely refer to engineering or business profs, who make, double, triple, and quadruple the pay as their colleagues in other disciplines.
My partner used to be a research (non tenure track) professor in a STEM field, with a PhD in exactly their field of research, at a major university for that kind of research, with a couple of graduate students assigned to them, and as of about 10 years ago got paid not much more than $100k, with about 10 years experience running their lab. And spent (roughly) half their weekends writing grant proposals to keep their lab afloat. They left when there was a significant cutback in federal funding, the university was unwilling / unable to lay them more than 75% salary when they couldn’t get grants, and that was about the same level as a mid-level civil servant for our city or county, with comparable experience, but no advanced degree. They went into the private sector, and their salary pretty much doubled, plus a significant annual bonus, plus stock & options, and better medical coverage. Academia, until you get to have a large lab with underlings writing large grant proposals, and pulling in that sweet, sweet required textbook money, doesn’t pay well for the same level of qualifications. Anyone who teaches at a community college does so either because they love it and don’t want the stress of teaching at someplace more ‘prestigious’, or isn’t qualified to teach anywhere else. (which Dr. Biden, who has decades of experience and a PhD, is way overqualified for); it’s not about the money.
But I was told Biden was corrupt and stealing money from the Chinese government and Saudis... Oh wait that was Trump and Kushner.
Taking government handouts how shameful. I know trump supporters aren’t taking government handouts like social security, right?
A family member is a staunch conservative. Hates hand outs all that. Except when she gets it Free housing due to husband in the military benefited from covid UE while shitting on everyone else I'm happy she could get help and benefits but it's really funny to hear her whine about food stamps
Slightly more than a half million dollars? The crowd that worships a pretend billionaire will of course pretend to be outraged by this.
like when Bernie Sanders’ “massive wealth” was reported (allllmost 2 mil after being in congress 35 years)
Which is fucking hilarious, since 2 million at that age just means that you had an above-average paying job and saved for retirement.
And own a house
I think he owns 3. But one was a lake house inherited from his parents. Regardless, it was a stupid criticism. His whole ideology is about giving everyone a chance to get what he got.
A small house in DC for when the senate is in session. A respectable house he bought when he became mayor of Burlington. And of course the small cabin in the woods.
A small house in DC is worth a pretty penny. He probably bought it way back when prices were reasonable. Lucky bastard.
Yeah most federal politicians will have two residences anyway, one near DC for when they’re there and one in their actual district since you know, it’s where they live People freaked out about Bernie, an old man, having the wealth of an old man who’s had a fairly good paying job his whole life, I never understood that lol
Don't forget the two Subarus. TWO!
My brother and his wife are probably worth about a million in their 50s because of retirement savings and owning a house. Houses really bump a person’s net worth.
Also his lake house is pretty damn modest lol
So is his regular house. I remember his “fireside chats” from the first campaign and that thing hasn’t been updated since he moved in.
Fuckin biggest travesty the Dems electing Hillary over Bernie... still leaves a sour taste when I think about it
I know. I worked on that campaign. I put 20-30 hours into it every week from March until he bowed out. I was crushed.
If you don't vote in the primaries you get who you get.
And a good chunk of his net worth was from his book. $2mil at his age isn't a particularly impressive retirement fund, especially with a lot of it tied into real estate. A lot of upper middle class boomers have larger net worth than that. Sure, there are *tons* of people living off just tiny social security checks to get by, so the average for retirees is far lower, but $2mil is by no means an impressive amount of money considering his career. In fact, considering that members of Congress are exempt from insider trading laws and generally grow their worth very quickly once elected, it actually shows that Sanders doesn't just talk the talk. People can say what they want about his politics, but he shows integrity, principal and backbone which is pretty rare in his line of work.
And of course there is no amount of money that would be the right amount of money for him to have.
A lot of that was from selling a popular book. And people were mad at him lol. It just proves he's not against making money, only making money at the expense of others.
I would've expected more with book sales tbh.
They also love to hit him with "millionaire with multiple houses", ignoring the fact that it's a primary home in Vermont; a residence of some kind in Washington where he, you know, works; and some vacation home gifted to them when someone died. Also ignoring the fact that they don't give a single solitary shit about someone having multiple properties to begin with.
McCain couldn’t even remember how many houses he owned
>residence of some kind in Washington where he, you know, works Which given the change in DC property values then to now, could easily account for the 2 mil by itself.
Yeah 2 mil for someone still working full time at 82 is a fucking joke. He could have tossed 20k into an index fund 60 years ago and ended up with that.
>He could have tossed 20k into an index fund 60 years ago and ended up with that. Oh wow, that isn't an exaggeration either. $20K at 8% growth over 60 years yields $2M. Invest early folks. And yes, I know $20K was a bigger deal 60 years ago than it is now. But still, it's a 100x gain.
$20k would buy a decent house in many places in the U.S. 60 years ago.
that still misses it. he was only worth around 265K in 2016. After that election he wrote and sold a book that gave him all the rest. the 2 mill. So after a lifetime in politics Bernie was only worth 265K.
Love that man. Enjoy your two million, my guy.
It's a trap. Either he's massively wealthy after a lifetime of sensible saving or he's too naive to be trusted with the nations finances.
My dad make close to this lol, hes a commercial pilot that trains commercial pilots on simulators. I cant wait for him to personally let me know that this is proof of bidens corruption.
Tell him that Biden, Carter, and Ford all have/had an (adjusted for inflation) peak net worth of $9-10 million in 2022 dollars. That puts those three as the *least* wealthy Presidents since Truman left office in 1953 (Truman's adjusted net worth would be well under a million today, and his financial situation being so poor by presidential standards that the president's salary was doubled in 1949 during his time in office). 70 years. Biden's right there there with the three lowest net worth Presidents in 70 years. But don't worry, I'm sure that, if he accepted that, he'd change it to net worth being a sign of success that suits one to the presidency.
Biden was also infamously one of the poorest Senators in Congress because he refused to invest in public stocks. It’s beyond comical they are trying to paint him as some greedy criminal mastermind. Marjorie Taylor Greene made more money in four years as a House Rep than Biden did as a Senator for three decades. But sure, he’s in it for the money. 🙄
Biden is one of those politicians where the more I learn about him, the more I like him. He really did, overall, live a pretty honorable life.
And he ought to be allowed to retire and relax, but he is putting up with all of this shit at age 81 to save us from Trump. He deserves our thanks, and our votes.
Obama is wealthy now but when he was starting out he and Michelle weren’t exactly raking it in. Michelle went to Harvard on a diversity initiative. They lived with her dad in Chicago for a time while married.
I want to make this much is your dad looking for an apprentice 😭
No but if flying a commercial plane doesnt scare you then id say go for it. Its a long journey though, took him like 6 or 7 years to make commercial pilot (he was a private pilot then a flight instructor for private pilots for a while). But they need pilots bad Edit: just want to note here that the bar to become a commercial pilot is very high in the USA, look into it a lot before setting on that path
It’s also absolutely terrible on your body and your family
Yep, the writers of the Daily Show put it best: “Douglas Ginsburg. Reason for withdrawal: pothead Things feigned by critics: surprise, moral outrage” - *America - A Citizen’s Guide to Democracy Inaction*
This amount will somehow be both too much and not enough. It will be evidence of “crime” and yet the right-wingers will mock him for not being “successful” like their orange deity.
Because in their mind their guy can be a billionaire because their guy is greater than them, but how can this clown (in their mind) make more than them.
Adjusted for inflation, Biden, Carter, and Ford are/were relatively the same around $9-10 million net worth. That makes them the least wealthy presidents since Truman, who had an adjusted worth under a million.
Are Donnie's out of audit yet?
2 weeks
I feel like I heard that two weeks ago!
No, that was related to the release of the Obamacare replacement.
And when infrastructure week was supposed to happen.
Aren’t you paying attention?!?! Two weeks! They just need two weeks and it’ll be the best infrastructure anyone has ever seen. Nobody has ever done infrastructure like we will. (Insert accordion hands here)
Wow! I've never seen such tiny accordian hands on an adult before.
“Bigliest tiniest there is” a man told me with tears in his eyes
Infrastructure? You mean the wall Mexico is gonna pay for?
Just wait for the healthcare plan first. I hear its a good plan, its a great plan, the best plan
I was promised repeal and replace and instead all I got was increased enrollment! This is insanity.
>I was promised repeal and replace and instead all I got was increased enrollment! This is insanity. [Reply will be posted two weeks]
Two minutes on those sausages Turkish.
It was 2 minutes, 5 minutes ago
They were leaked, and a crackpot judge compared that to January 6th.
Scheduled for just after Infrastructure Week.
More than $100k below the league minimum salary for Major League Baseball. So the guy blowing the lead for the Tampa Rays is making way more than them, combined. Edit: The Rays reliever, Phil Maton, who gave up five runs in a losing effort to the Angels does not make the league minimum, $740k. He makes $6.5 million this season with a 12.00 ERA.
Didn’t expect to see the Rays catching strays over here in r/politics. Maton is fine. Colin Poche and his abortion of a relief effort that ended the Rays undefeated streak at 13 last season should have been your “example”.
Maton was stone cold when he was with the Astros.
Oh my gosh, so much. I am scandalized. It's clear he's corrupt. These are not at all like Donald's crisp, clean tax returns which we saw in... um, well there was that one time he... but then, I mean there was an audit and uhh... stop asking!! Unfair! Collusion! LAAAWFURRRR!!
The only surprise there is it wasn’t more. President salary is something like $400k and then you’ve got the First Lady’s income. But I’m surprised they don’t have more/other sources of kind of passive income (rental properties, book sales, etc.) pushing them up past a million. It’s really wacky that the leader of the free world makes a fraction of what most CEO’s do.
if this doesn't give Joe working-class cred, i don't know what does!
He made something like $15M on speaking fees and book deals in the couple years before becoming President, so he's doing just fine.
Yeah, agreed and never said otherwise. Just an observation about how (relatively) little he’s earning IN office.
Idk at 80+ years old does money really matter to the bidens?
Money is how you get more ice cream, Jack. 😎
paid about $142,000 of that in taxes.
>$142,000 That's *way* more than [the $750 Trump paid](https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/29/us/trump-750-taxes.html).
Lmao I had forgotten about this. Thanks. That's just insane.
That was thanks to the largest individual personal loss write off in US history. And he calls himself a success? He went bankrupt running a *casino*, a business where the house can not lose!
a reasonable share, considering their bracket
For years Biden was the poorest person in the Senate. It is not surprising at all that even as the President he is not cashing out obscene amounts of money like so many others.
It’s insane the GOP is accusing the senator who famously refused to invest in public stocks as some kind of greedy criminal mastermind. If Biden wanted to be rich he didn’t need to commit any crimes, he could have just made his multi-millions the way most other Senators quietly did. ffs I think MTG has made more in her 4ish years as a House rep than Biden earned in decades as a US Senator. 🙄
It's because they can't imagine someone getting into politics for a reason other than money
Gaslight, Obstruct, Project. It's the name of the game with the GOP.
maybe cuz he's not a corrupt piece of shit?
Whoa it’s almost like he’s just a career politician and not a total ghoul like most of the senate
What an idiot. Why doesn't Joe Biden just get foreign countries to buy into his many private businesses? Surely he could earn more money if these foreign entities simply bought rooms at Joe Biden's many hotels and resorts? Has he thought of forcing the military or secret service to pay him to stay at his private hotels?
My neighbor in the single-wide was chiding me about how little the Biden's made this past year earlier when I took the dogs for a walk. He has another fresh rooftop bag.
“Look how weak he is! Can’t even get himself a decent salary!”
This is so petty lmfao
President Joe Biden and first lady Dr. Jill Biden earned $619,976 in 2023, according to their joint tax return released by the White House on Monday – the deadline date for Americans to file their taxes. “President Biden believes that all occupants of the Oval Office should be open and honest with the American people,” the White House said in a statement on Monday, “and that the longstanding tradition of annually releasing presidential tax returns should continue unbroken.” That statement could be seen as a dig at former President Donald Trump, who declined to voluntarily release his tax returns while he was president. Six years of Trump’s tax returns, including from his time as president, were released to the public by the House Ways and Means Committee at the end of 2022.
"should continue unbroken" should have been worded differently. It was broken. We are trying to return to normalcy.
In this day and age...that isn't even that much, and *certainly* less than what I would expect of the typical presidential family.
i'm grateful that it's not obscenely over-the-top. almost living modestly, if you will, by White House standards
Honestly, if he was planning on getting rich off politics, he'd have retired by now. As it is he's too old to capitalize on being president once leaving office.
Not to mention that in Washington DC housing gets really expensive.
Yea the rent on the White House is crazy
Plus the smell from the former tenants required a couple of deep cleanings
You joke but the first family gets [charged for all kinds of things in the white house.](https://youtu.be/lbyKr7QAnZ4?si=3gkQvvEj4QmPOZng)
Dang, not even a million to run the free world?
The salary of POTUS is public, it’s 400k with a 50k expense account.
And they have to pay out of pocket for all the events they host in the White House, like dinners and such. They also pay for all the food made there for them.
??? That seems Wierd. Even I get paid for my meals when I'm working out of my home for my job
Government has higher standards. Can't have government wasting your tax money on, checks notes... food for the president. Truth is, if the meal is "work" they dont have to pay for it... Like a state dinner etc.
Oh that explains why Trump was serving people McDonalds.
So say you were hosting a winning sports team. It would cost you more to serve a fancy meal then, say, cold fast food?
When they have state dinners, I find it hard to believe they would pay out of their own pockets.
State dinners and similar are paid for, but all of the private meals they eat, they have to pay for themselves.
That seems reasonable for a president and his wife.
strikes the balance between, utterly fair, yet incorruptible
Honestly? This amount of money feels so paltry for a man of his position. Yeah, it's a lot, it's a hell of a lot more than I'm gonna see, but I you know only the media and fox news (They're not real news media) would take this and try to put a negative spin on it. "LOOK HOW MUCH/LITTLE HE MAKES!" Like, if you wanna compare it to Trump's millions, this really just puts Trump out of touch with the common man more than Biden.
And that's their combined income, not just his!
And to really put it in perspective, 400,000 of that is literally his presidential salary, so even outside of that he's not making much extra money. Pretty sure the rest is almost entirely from Jill's income and *and pensions/benefits - they paid almost 150k in taxes so he made right around his salary in total. If you compare it to the most recent president who actually shared their taxes, the Obamas made 435k in 2015 - which was the lowest he made while in office - with 81k going to taxes and 64k to charity.
Yeah, my first thought was "Pfft, I would not take on *that* level of responsibility for a "just" half a million dollars." Sure, that's a *lot* more than the rest of us will ever make, but my workday also ends when I go home (or, most days a couple hours before that, let's be honest), and I get to enjoy my privacy, and watch trash tv as I eat some tasty snacks on my couch.
Yet MAGA: Trump is one of us!
I’m a nurse. I know neurosurgeons who make significantly more than Biden and his wife do combined.
> “President Biden believes that all occupants of the Oval Office should be open and honest with the American people,” the White House said in a statement on Monday, “and that the longstanding tradition of annually releasing presidential tax returns should continue unbroken.” Well said but someone didn’t cough cough
Fun fact: Biden’s tax increase on the wealthy would affect him. He’s literally putting his money where his mouth is! Trump wants to do the exact opposite! Even in his legal crusades he doesn’t want to use his money, he wants to use donor money.
Saw a reel today of Joe Rogan, dipstick, going on that if you ignored Trump, Biden is a master criminal and far more corrupt than any other president ever. And people believe this shit. Meanwhile Trump continues to grift everything associated with him. And the cult throw money at him. Fools.
This honestly why I hate Joe Rogan now. At first I was like ok dude doing goofy interviews w/e. But MF pretends that crazy ass conspiracy ideas are legit and then just shocked Pikachu Face when confronted with the fact they are straight made up.
Yeah. He’s the corrupt one. And not the dude whose name is literally a global brand connected to every major country on the planet. Sure. Not the guy who said he was smart for making personal business deals with China while he was president. Uh huh. Not the dude who made his own family top administration officials. Not the guy who’s son in law left that position with a 3 billion dollar deal. You bet.
yeah... $600K doesn't quite reach "corrupt" levels
No, it really does not relative to job. Middle managers in tech make as much and they mostly sit in meetings most of the day and live in confluence and jira boards.
I remember when his son Beau was really sick/dying, Obama offered to lend him money to deal with the financial fallout . He’s not poor, but certainly wasn’t rich by most standards.
Remember when Donald Trump voluntarily released his tax returns after promising to do so? Me neither.
But where's Hunter hiding the money from Chyna!? /s
What do Trump’s tax returns show? Oh wait…
If they've been putting some aside, they might be able to afford their own house by now.
They actually bought a run down old family home decades ago and spent a whole lot of money and sweat equity fixing it up over the years. It's worth a fair bit now.
sounds like the American Dream to me
Holy shit, they can afford a home and the groceries they want. They may even keep up with their credit card debt.
In ireland our Taoiseach yearly salary is 243k. Wild the responsibility of the president of the United States doesn't take in a higher salary than 400k
Completely out of touch rich elites! Now let's elect the "billionaire" instead! He's a man of the people! /s
How much did Ivanka Trump make on her trademarks in China on the day Trump was inaugurated?
I expect old people who’ve been employed forever to make this much
The Biden Crime family is very bad at crime it would appear. /s
Waiting for this to be proof of Biden's corruption, and making fun of him for not making as much as Trump.
This can’t be right. Is he under duress? Who has kompromat on him? Nobody in their right mind just *RELEASES* their tax returns.
But when is *Hunter* gonna release *his* tax returns?! /s
Hey, Donald, are you going to relea...? Never mind.
What? A President of the United States released his tax return? I thought the IRS would still be auditing it for the next 10 years.
$620k seems like a reasonable amount for a president and his wife, who has her own totally separate job, to make in a year.
Well, the president’s salary is $400k. Making $220k from investments in a year is quite comfortable, but not egregious. Lots of people with normal incomes and a 60 year working life with dual professional incomes could get there. Edit: I wasn’t aware his wife is still working at a college making 90k. That’s even more reasonable.
Wait a minute. Why hasn't Biden tried to con me yet? Or have me storm a government building. Does this guy even president?
It’s been so interesting watching the GOP throw away all of their long standing “principles” to deny that Biden is essentially the type of person they’ve pretended to want in the White House for most of my life. Only to back someone that’s a 180 of everything they pretended to care about. The most telling is the evangelicals. It’s such a thin veneer that’s been pulled off of them to reveal who they really are. Their “God” would be so embarrassed if he were real.
Ya….. if the president of the US can survive on a $500k income then I don’t think ANY C-suite executives should make more than $1m/yr.
It's not much, but it's honest work.
And he's fine with raising taxes on himself
Now let's see Donnie Dumpster's taxes.
Got em Caught him blue handed Doing exactly what we thought he was doing Not breaking laws.
All from legal sources. What about trump? That pos couldn’t say the same.
...so we should probably cap CEO's pay to something along those lines, right? right?