"In any discussion of the problems in our world today, racism must rank high. Not because we are soft-minded liberals obsessed with countless crimes throughout history induced by colour, religion, tribalism or chauvinism of one kind or another. But because the poison which we hoped and believed had been eradicated in our own time by the knowledge of the ultimate evil- the gas-chamber murders committed by the Nazis--is in fact still present, not in any one area of discrimination or racism, or in a restricted number of specific rulers or governments, but in all humankind. I call it "Inner Racism."-

Gitta Sereny, "The Healing Wound"

Saturday, April 16, 2016

SANDERS-205,000 CLINTONS-28,000,000

A TALE OF TWO FAMILIES






"According to his tax forms, Sanders and his wife paid $27,653 in federal income tax and another $7,903 in Vermont income tax last year. The couple paid an effective tax rate of 19.6 percent on their federal taxable income of $140,994.

Bernie Sanders and his wife made $205K, 


Sanders reported receiving $156,441 from his Senate job, after contributions to a savings plan and health insurance. The couple reported receiving another $46,213 in Social Security benefits, of which $39,281 was taxable.
Sanders also reported income of $4,982 from the pension he receives having been mayor of Burlington, Vt., in the 1980s. And his wife had another $4,900 in compensation for sitting on a commission devoted to the management of low-level radioactive waste disposal.
On a separate disclosure form required of presidential candidates, Sanders reported having between $25,000 and $65,000 in credit card debt at some point during the past year.
Sanders spokesman Michael Briggs said the debt was related to weddings of a daughter and niece and that Sanders and his wife had since paid the balance on the two credit cards down to zero."- USA Today 





"Clinton released her tax returns, filed jointly with her husband, former President Bill Clinton, in July. They show the couple earned just over $28 million in 2014 and $27 million in 2013, more than double the $13 million they earned in 2010, when she was still serving as secretary of state. The 2014 total included $10.5 million in speaking fees for Hillary Clinton, $9.8 million in speaking fees for the former president, and $6.4 million he earned from "consulting."

Hillary Clinton and her husband made $28 Million



In a statement, Hillary Clinton noted the family had given $15 million to charity since 2007. The tax returns show $14.8 million of that went to the Clinton Family Foundation. Clinton said the couple has paid $43.9 million in federal taxes since 2007, and that last year they paid an effective rate of 35.7%."

Sanders has been under pressure for weeks to release his returns. Clinton raised the issue during the debate to counter questions about why she won’t release transcripts of her paid speeches to Goldman Sachs. Clinton received $675,000 for speeches to the company in 2013, according to her own disclosure. 


Money do talk. There probably should be a better etiquette to all this as I for one find it ill-mannered and maybe crass to bother about people's personal finances - what they make is their own business really except of course when the people involved are publicly elected and so should be obligated to give up their financial privacy to show how much and why and that things are for the most part copacetic. As a son of an accountant myself I was proud when my father would ask me to help out by filling in those compressed lines on the income forms with the numbers he had put down on  the "unofficial" form he had already completed - a recognition of my very legible copyhand and showing an early established faith in his scatterbrained son. He would sometimes point out that the figures I was copying did not necessarily reflect the value or worth of a single individual  - who makes more, who has more, who owns more - who is richer, poorer, but they do reflect a kind of , well, accounting of how a person lives his or her life-whether by choice or forced circumstance who could tell -and what they officially declared they made and what they were obligated to pay the government was all sanctioned by a kind of communal commitment to maintain this nutty country we call America. 














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