What are the Clintons selling to earn 344 times the Average American? #theClintonMultiple
In an interview with Dianne Sawyer in 2014, Hillary Clinton expressed the difficulty she and her husband faced when leaving the White House in 2001.
"You have no reason to remember, but we came out of the White House not only dead broke, but in debt," Clinton said. "We had no money when we got there, and we struggled to piece together the resources for mortgages for houses, for Chelsea's education. It was not easy. Bill has worked really hard. And it's been amazing to me. He's worked very hard."
As I noted in a related article, the tax returns for the Clinton’s are available for all their political life. I pulled them up and, using our friend Excel, did a little comparison of the income of Bill and Hillary Clinton to the Median Income earned by Americans.
As President, Bill Clinton had net income of $4,111,626 for the 9 years from 1992 – 2000, for an annual average of $456,847. The Median Income in America for those same years was an average of $35,163. So the Clinton’s earned 13 times more income than the Median, or middle, American family.
Mrs. Clinton was accurate to note that the Clinton’s left the White House with some financial woes. But she failed to detail that 100% of their financial negatives were the legal bills they incurred in defending against the multiple corruption and sexual assault allegations against them. Mrs. Clinton listed the issues of mortgages and houses and their daughter’s education. But they lived in the White House and didn’t need a mortgage. While in office, they had taxable income of 13 times the average American, yet she complained about the struggle of paying for their child’s school?
Let’s turn to Chapter 2 in the financial life of the Clintons. In the years following their first White House experience, the Clintons had personal taxable net income of $229,314,701 for the years 2001 – 2014. That’s an average of $16,379,622 per year. During that same period, the Median income for an American family averaged $47,655. The #ClintonMultiple jumped from a nice 13 times the American average while President, to 344 times the American average (Median) in their years after the White House.
When the topic of the Clintons’ high income has come up during the campaign, I have often overheard this type of reply, “Well, Donald Trump is rich, too. Rich people are all corrupt in one way or another, and do the same things.”
The reason I started this series of articles on the differences between Public and Private life is so we could remember the necessary distinction between them: People who choose the honor and sacrifice of a Public Life must live up to the high standard required, because they are now serving the Public Interest, not simply their own. They are responsible for other people’s money, not their own. They are called to use their position and influence for the good of others, the good of the country, not their own.
In Private life, and private business, you are free to use your time and money and business to serve your own desires. What’s incredible America is how a free and moral people use their private life and money to serve others because they want to, not because they are forced to. America consistently ranks at the top of most charitable countries in the world in private charitable giving.
How is it that the Clintons can earn 344 times what the Median American family earns and do so without owning any businesses? In comparing their income to other business people, remember that the Clintons’ don’t own a chain of car dealerships like the uber-popular John Elway did when he retired at the top as quarterback of the Denver Broncos. Nope. They don’t own part of baseball team or an interest in an energy company, like President Bush did before he was elected. No sir. The Clintons fly around the world and give talks. As a bonus to them, it appears that President Clinton nearly always flies on the luxury jet of one of his benefactors. And from what I understand, that’s not included in his taxable income, either.
This reminds me of Rumpelstiltskin’s line from the current popular series, Once Upon a Time. When someone comes to Rumple wanting him to use his magic to help them, he always warns them, “Remember Dearie, All Magic Comes at a Price!”
The Clintons have been cashing-in on their fame and more pointedly, their enormous political influence, helping help people and companies at home and abroad get what they want done in Washington. Just like with Rumpelstiltskin, there’s no magical freebies here: the Clinton’s earned their tremendous fortune not by generating value from a product or service, but for selling their political influence. When politicians put their thumb on the scale on behalf of one party, it always costs another party that same amount.
Why would so many people pay the Clinton’s so much? Because the Clintons future decisions were going to pay off to them! There’s no magic here, just plain ole’ #Pay4Play Corruption.
P.S. If you are now curious and want specific examples, just dig around. And I’ll be listing a few pointed ones in another article very soon. You could also check out the video of Peter Schweizer’s book, Clinton Cash. Advance to the 5 minute mark, and you’ll here a summary of the Clintons’ interactions with Rwandan “President” Paul Kagame. Then with Lukas Lundin who cut deals with warlords in the Congo and made huge profits, and donated $100 million to the Clinton Foundation. At 12:12, the story turns to Nigeria, resource rich but maybe the most corrupt country in the world. Nigeria was facing a loss of foreign aid if the Secretary of State didn’t grant a waiver for corruption transparency. Then Bill Clinton got paid $1.4 million for 2 speeches in Nigeria about that same time…and Nigeria received that waiver. At 16:40, the story of the Clintons’ involvement in the Haiti recovery begins. (I’ll update the other major mile markers in the documentary later tonight.)