Happy Friday everybody! The Clintons have released their tax returns ... okay, they haven't release last year's tax returns, which is what the media and rival campaigns have been clamoring for ... but late today they release a whole batch of returns that show the couple earning some $109 million since leaving 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue:
On that amount, they reportedly paid $33.7 million in taxes at a rate of 31% -- a rate that is much higher than the average rate of 20.8% for that tax bracket.
They have filed an extension on their 2007 taxes.
The Clinton family donated $10.2 million to charity, or 9.5% of their adjusted gross income, including $1 million in proceeds from the former President's book "Giving".
Some of the most significant sources of Clinton income: $10.4 million off her books, $29.5 million off his books, and a whopping $51.8 million for speeches given by Bill Clinton.
Suddenly, that $5 million Hillary loaned her campaign looks like chump change...
The media will now spend the weekend looking for dirt. Like this, for instance:
Bill Clinton has an unusual position for a former president as a senior advisor to the Yucaipa Cos., the firm of billionaire Ron Burkle, a longtime friend and political donor. Today, Hillary Clinton’s campaign released the couple’s tax returns, which show they have earned at least $12.5 million from the company.
Bill Clinton has few day-to-day duties in the firm beyond increasing the prestige of the company and meeting with clients, according to press accounts. He also made an investment in an international Yucaipa fund, along with Burkle and an entity connected to the ruler of Dubai. Taking money from foreign governments is always a sensitive political issue. The issue has flared up in the campaign during recent bailouts of several Wall Street firms.
The WSJ reports that Bill Clinton is looking to end his relationship with the company, "with a payout of up to $20 million.) It's good to be the Big Dog.
Meanwhile, Joe Conasan at Salon has some free advice for Barack Obama:
While the Clintons have many faults -- including the arrogant and sometimes offensive way they have conducted this campaign -- the scandal tactic won't vanquish them. Hillary Clinton's advertising may inflate her national security experience, but when she claims to have been tested by partisan fire on her way from Arkansas to the Senate, she isn't just blowing smoke. There is no politician in America whose personal and financial affairs have been subjected to similar scrutiny except her husband, and he is retired.
So if Obama expects a devastating revelation to leap from the pages of the Clinton tax returns when they are released to the press next month, he is more than likely to be disappointed. Chances are that she hasn't yet released her 2007 return because the paperwork isn't ready -- and she probably doesn't know what it will say when it is complete. Like most wealthy senators (and alas, most senators are wealthy), she doesn't spend much time poring over her own finances. Other people are hired to do that, and besides, she's been fairly busy for the past year or so. ..
Conasan goes on to describe the media, and Ken Starr's many vain attempts to catch the Clintons doing something criminal, and he suggests that Obama drop the focus on her ethics, and concentrate on responding to inevitable quesions about his own finances.
I doubt the media will heed similar advice (to drop the ethics focus.) This is going to be "one of those weekends" for the journalism crowd. Time to break out the heavy reading glasses.Labels: 2008 election, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, presidential candidates, The Clintons |
