Welcome to DU! The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards. Join the community: Create a free account Support DU (and get rid of ads!): Become a Star Member All Forums Issue Forums Culture Forums Alliance Forums Region Forums Support Forums Help & Search

Ferd Berfel

(3,687 posts)
Sun Mar 13, 2016, 12:32 PM Mar 2016

Excerpt from 'My Turn: Hillary Clinton Targets the Presidency'

http://www.alternet.org/books/excerpt-my-turn-critical-doug-henwood-book-hillary


Politics, the family business of the Clintons, has been very good to them, as they have raised between $2 billion and $3 billion since 1992.


The title of Daniel Halper’s book, Clinton, Inc., is key to understanding the family. Unlike the Bush family, neither Bill nor Hillary was born into anything near the ruling class. There was no Prescott Bush—the son of a steel company president who went to Yale, joined Skull and Bones (just like his son and grandson), and later became a banker and then a senator—in their separate pasts. Bill was born poor, in one of the poorest states in the country and into an unstable family, while Hillary was born into the provincial petty bourgeoisie. Entry into elite schools was their ticket to eventual membership in the ruling class; it took decades of striving for them to get there.

Once established, however, politics became the family’s business, and it’s been very good to them. A 2014 Wall Street Journal analysis showed that the Clintons have raised between $2 billion and $3 billion since 1992—more than three-quarters of it from industry sources—for their campaigns, philanthropies, and themselves. At the top of the list of corporate donors were financial firms, and highest up among them was Goldman Sachs. Citigroup and JP Morgan Chase gave generously as well. Not far behind Wall Street were communications/electronics firms and then, that perennial bedrock of Democratic Party support, lawyers and lobbyists. Those three sectors alone contributed more than ten times as much as organized labor, which pitched in just $41 million of the total over the period of the Journal’s study.

It’s hard to separate the Clintons’ personal fortune from the Foundation’s; the perks it provides are a form of imputed consumer services, to use the language of national income accounting—jetting all over, staying in fancy hotels, eating very well, and the rest. But they have been prodigious earners on their own account. Bill did most of the heavy financial lifting, earning $105 million from speeches in the dozen years after he left the White House; a good week could yield $1.4 million. According to work by the website 24/7 Wall St, Bill is the 10th-richest of our presidents, with a net worth of $55 million. (Five of the 10 richest presidents have been Democrats, compared to two Republicans, and on average, Democratic presidents are more than three times richer than Republicans.) But Hillary wasn’t just sitting around baking cookies: she’s worth $32 million, according to a Politico analysis. The property taxes on their two houses, one in D.C. and the other, for which they paid $4.5 million, in Westchester, are $104,000, twice the average household’s income. It’s a good life they’ve made for themselves.
18 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight: NoneDon't highlight anything 5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies
Excerpt from 'My Turn: Hillary Clinton Targets the Presidency' (Original Post) Ferd Berfel Mar 2016 OP
"My Turn" with a cover picture of Hillary holding a gun?!? Another example of being so far to the Metric System Mar 2016 #1
SO what's not correct in the article? Ferd Berfel Mar 2016 #2
Tell that to your candidate pinebox Mar 2016 #13
Daniel Halper? Really? Beacool Mar 2016 #3
Attack the messenger much? nt revbones Mar 2016 #4
No, attacking the RW crap posted on a Democratic site. Beacool Mar 2016 #5
Truth doesn't change because someone you don't like says it. n/t revbones Mar 2016 #6
Everything that doesn't fawn & flatter... dchill Mar 2016 #8
Did I miss it when UglyGreed Mar 2016 #7
Got a link? I don't remember saying anything like that. n/t revbones Mar 2016 #9
No not you UglyGreed Mar 2016 #11
You very specifically said as a response to my comment "Did I miss it when you denounced the use of" revbones Mar 2016 #14
No look at the comment I replied to UglyGreed Mar 2016 #15
Ah. My sincere apologies then. revbones Mar 2016 #17
I understand UglyGreed Mar 2016 #18
This message was self-deleted by its author UglyGreed Mar 2016 #16
Was that addressed to me? Beacool Mar 2016 #10
JaneyVee UglyGreed Mar 2016 #12

Metric System

(6,048 posts)
1. "My Turn" with a cover picture of Hillary holding a gun?!? Another example of being so far to the
Sun Mar 13, 2016, 12:34 PM
Mar 2016

left you've circled around to the right.

Beacool

(30,244 posts)
3. Daniel Halper? Really?
Sun Mar 13, 2016, 12:49 PM
Mar 2016

Daniel Halper is an American political writer. He serves as the online editor of the conservative news publication The Weekly Standard[1] and is the author of an unflattering 2014 biography of the Clinton family titled Clinton, Inc.: The Audacious Rebuilding of a Political Machine.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Halper

Thanks for posting an article based of what RW writer Halper wrote in his anti-Clinton book.

This place jumped the shark long ago......


UglyGreed

(7,661 posts)
7. Did I miss it when
Sun Mar 13, 2016, 12:58 PM
Mar 2016

you denounced the use of a right wing PAC to slander Sanders the other day??? If so I'm sorry if I felt this reply was a bit hypocritical.....

Right wing PAC Official PAC Name:
WESTERN REPRESENTATION PAC
Location: RENO, NV 89509
Industry: Republican/Conservative
Treasurer: STOCKTON, ROGER
FEC Committee ID: C00461772

 

revbones

(3,660 posts)
14. You very specifically said as a response to my comment "Did I miss it when you denounced the use of"
Sun Mar 13, 2016, 01:31 PM
Mar 2016

Which quite clearly ascribes that to me in an attempt to discredit my statements.

I typically don't use shoot the messenger tactics, and look at facts regardless of the source. I would suggest the same for others.

 

revbones

(3,660 posts)
17. Ah. My sincere apologies then.
Sun Mar 13, 2016, 01:35 PM
Mar 2016

That was my mistake, and I own it. I "misread" it - sorry couldn't resist.

Response to revbones (Reply #14)

UglyGreed

(7,661 posts)
12. JaneyVee
Sun Mar 13, 2016, 01:18 PM
Mar 2016

used the PAC to trash Sanders the other day and it was well received and had many recs. The PAC's name is in my first reply.

Latest Discussions»Retired Forums»2016 Postmortem»Excerpt from 'My Turn: Hi...