Jeb Bush: Just Like You, If You’re Rich.

Jeb Bush, running for the Republican presidential candidacy, released 33 years of his tax returns and, as predicted, he’s got a Mitt Romney problem: He’s rich. More telling, his income really took off after his daddy and brother became president.

More:

“Jeb Bush dogged by decades of questions about business deals,” Robert O’Harrow Jr. and Tom Hamburger, Washington Post

“Here’s how much money Jeb Bush made in the last 30 years,” Lisa DesJardins, PBS NewsHour

“Bush tax forms show income of $29 million since 2007,”Ed O’Keefe and David A. Fahrenthold, Washington Post

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Jeb! Jeb! Jeb! Jeb! Jeb! Jeb! Jeb! Jeb! Jeb! Jeb!

The excitement and the exclamation points could not be contained as John Ellis “Jeb” Bush, railed against “the pampered elites of Washington” and declared his candidacy for the Presidency of the United States.

Mr. Bush, a graduate of the Phillips Academy, has been an international banker, Florida real estate developer, Nigerian business negotiator, chairman of three offshore private equity funds, advisor to the British bank Barclay’s, a consultant to Lehman Brothers and on its Private Equity Advisory Board, and was formerly on the board of fraud-prone Tenet Healthcare, a private Swiss bank, and the Heritage Foundation. He is the son of former President George H. W. Bush and younger brother of former President George W. Bush.

Panicking Plutocrats Ponder Wealth Inequality

Daily Show correspondent Hasan Minhaj recently explored the growing income gap in the millionaire population. “According to a recent study,” he concluded, “the insanely rich people are leaving behind the lowly, average, regular rich people.”

Millionaires Vote Down $10.10 Minimum Wage

“A broad-based coalition of millionaires converged on Washington today to defeat a bill that would have increased the minimum wage for American workers to $10.10 an hour.

Leaving behind their mansions and yachts, the millionaires were motivated by what they saw as an existential threat to the country, Mitch McConnell, a spokesman for the millionaires, said.

‘This was an extremely diverse coalition,’ McConnell said, noting that everyone from the rich to the very rich to the super-rich united to vote down the bill.”

— “Millionaires Unite to Defeat Minimum Wage,” Andy Borowitz, The New Yorker

More:

“GOP Blocks Minimum-Wage Bill in Senate,” Caitlin Huey-Burns and Alexis Simendinger, RealClearPolitics

Related:

“Which Millionaire Are You Voting For?” Nicholas Carnes, New York Times

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The Majority Party

What’s the majority party in Congress? Forget Democrats and Republicans. For the first time in history, most members of Congress are millionaires. An analysis of personal financial disclosure data by the Center for Responsive Politics found that at least 268 of the 534 members of Congress had an average net worth of $1 million or more in 2012. Median net worth: $1,008,767.

That doesn’t mean congressmen pay for their own meals or foreign travel, of course. Hey, what that’s what lobbyists and campaign donors are for. Of course, there’s a good salary too, because it’s hard work being a congressman:

“Breaking the numbers down … members of the House of Representatives will make approximately $1,539.82 per day or, given an eight-hour work day, roughly $192.47 per hour.”

– “Congress Working Less Than 1/3 Of Year In 2014, Getting Full Salary,” CBS Miami

Don’t expect these folks to deal with the critical issue of economic inequality in the near future.

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Congress Doesn’t Need Those Paychecks

With great fanfare, the do-nothing Congress passed the “No Budget, No Pay” bill, threatening to withhold congressmen’s paychecks if they don’t pass a budget. But Congress can’t really mess with its own pay. So what happens if a budget doesn’t pass? Paychecks get deposited in an escrow account and members of Congress get paid in full, all at once at the end of the current term.

“But a more significant problem is that most legislators probably couldn’t care less if their pay was withheld indefinitely. As of 2011, the average estimated wealth of members of Congress was $6.5 million in the House and $13.9 million in the Senate. And unlike many of their constituents, they haven’t exactly been struggling through lean times recently. While average American households saw their median net worth drop 39 percent from 2007 to 2010, lawmakers’ rose 5 percent during the same period.”

— “No Pay, No Problem: Why Congress Doesn’t Need Our Money,” Tim Price, Next New Deal

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Vote for the Millionaires of Your Choice

“If millionaires were a political party, that party would make up roughly 3 percent of American families, but it would have a super-majority in the Senate, a majority in the House, a majority on the Supreme Court and a man in the White House. If working-class Americans were a political party, that party would have made up more than half the country since the start of the 20th century. But legislators from that party (those who last worked in blue-collar jobs before entering politics) would never have held more than 2 percent of the seats in Congress.”

— “Which Millionaire Are You Voting For?” Nicholas Carnes, New York Times

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Meet Mitt Romney

The deal made in back rooms and boardrooms was confirmed Tuesday at the official GOP product roll-out in Tampa: Willard Mitt Romney is the Republican Nominee for President of the United States of America. The GOP Convention will now introduce us to “The Real Mitt Romney.” The man is such an empty suit that it will take 48 hours, thousands of people, and millions of dollars to do it.

Of course, Mitt Romney can speak for himself and doesn’t rely on slogans. “I know there are some people who do a very good job acting and pretend they’re something they’re not,” he told Politico. “You get what you see. I am who I am.” He repeated “I am who I am” three times during the interview. Paul Ryan was inspired by Ayn Rand; apparently Mr. Romney was inspired by Popeye the Sailor Man.

Leave Congress, Cash In

It’s a sad day when our public servants leave the halls of Congress. They cry all the way to the bank. An analysis by Lee Fang finds that when congressmen become lobbyists, their income increases astronomically:

“When a Congressman Becomes a Lobbyist, He Gets a 1,452% Raise (on Average),” Lee Fang, Republic Report

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Congress: The 1 Percent

While the U.S. Congress has never been more divided by party, there is something that unites many congressmen and senators. They’re millionaires.

Maybe you’ve heard this, but only about 1 percent of Americans are worth a million bucks. There are 535 congressmen and senators so, statistically, only 5 or 6 of them should be millionaires, right? Nope. Try 250.  That’s nearly half of them. No wonder they’re so reluctant to give up those”temporary” Bush tax cuts for the rich.

More:

“47% of Congress Members Millionaires — a Status Shared by Only 1% of Americans,” Tom Shine, ABC News

“Most Members of Congress Enjoy Robust Financial Status, Despite Nation’s Sluggish Economic Recovery,” OpenSecrets.org

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