President Harry S. Truman, perhaps the last true Democrat, allegedly said, “Show me a man that gets rich by being a politician, and I’ll show you a crook.” Well, Mr. Truman… meet Mr. Biden.
When Joe Biden was elected to the U.S. Senate in November 1972, he was just 30 years old. When he left the senate 36 years later, having earned as much as $174,000 per year, his net worth stood at a measly $24,512. At first glance, one might say that such meager financial resources point to Biden’s honesty. However, from my perspective, they are far more indicative of his almost complete lack of financial acumen.
But don’t feel too badly for “Lunch Bucket Joe,” because less than two years after leaving the vice presidency in 2017, the Bidens’ net worth soared to $9 million. Somehow, Joe and Jill Biden were able to parlay his $230,000 annual salary as vice president and her public-school teaching position into a massive fortune that includes two Delaware mansions valued at a total of $4 million and another $4 million in cash and investments.
Oh, and don’t forget Joe’s $1 million federal pension.
According to Forbes, Biden signed an $8 million book deal and was also paid between $540,000 and $775,000 as a no-show professor at the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement. Jill Biden also penned a book that sold an underwhelming 7,000 copies in its first week… and fell off from there. Then there were Joe’s six-figure speaking fees, 19 different gigs that raked in a reported $2.4 million.
Hmmm… it seems to me that a closer look into the Bidens’ finances is warranted.
Biden’s book, “Promise Me, Dad” was published in 2017 and sold an estimated 300,000 copies, grossing just under $7 million. Since authors generally receive about 12% of gross sales (15% for hardbacks and 7.5% for paperbacks), Joe’s book deal payout should have been around $800,000. That begs the question: what kind of publishing house would pay an author $8 million up front when his previous book, Biden’s 2007 political memoir “Promises to Keep,” was a complete flop with just 49,000 copies sold?
In reality, $13 million of the Bidens’ $17 million in reported income during 2017-2018 came from two S-corporations – CelticCapri Corp and Giacoppa Corp – that Joe and Jill set up after he left office in 2017. With the recent disclosures relating to Hunter Biden’s foreign business dealings and the alleged “10% for the Big Guy,” it is not hard to connect the dots as to where the remaining monies came from.
Maybe Joe learned how to milk public service for personal gain from his mentor, President Barack Obama. Obama entered the White House with a net worth of $1.2 million but is worth more than 58 times that amount today. His $70 million fortune includes a sprawling 30-acre estate on Martha’s Vineyard for which the Obamas shelled out $11.75 million in 2019.
Lest you think that only Democrats engage in such shameless self-promotion after leaving office, Gerald Ford was the first former president to charge exorbitant speaking fees and to monetize his name by serving on various corporate boards. Since then, every former chief executive has done so to one extent or another, with Bill Clinton and George W. Bush leading the pack and Barack Obama turning it into a perverse art form.
Call me an idealist, but I would think that the privilege of having served as president – along with a lucrative federal pension, an annual stipend for office space and staff, full health benefits, and lifetime secret service protection – should be more than enough.
Poor Harry must be turning over in his grave.
