That's a strange assertion, unless you just want to blankedly designate ALL Politicans as "public leeches"...Romney was born into GREAT wealth,and comes from a GOP Political Dynasty. Saying he made his money in business is akin to saying Trump made his money in business. Both were born into immense wealth...
Biden recounts having to borrow a car from his Dad's Delaware car lot to take to the Prom. The huge reason his 1972 Senate campaign was such an upset was because he had very little money and was running against a powerful incumbent.
His campaign was managed by his sister and staffed by other family members, and during summer polling he was 30 points behind. But he was known for running a face-to-face campaign and focussed on Vietnam, the environment, civil rights, and health care and people knew Lindsey Boggs wanted to retire but had only stayed on at Nixon's urging...
Biden only won by about 3000 votes, but it's a safe bet Lindsey Boggs didn't try to desperately hold on to office and go to the lengths Trump is presently employing. Of course, Boggs wasn't facing criminal prosecution and possible imprisonment either...
Politifact did a fact check on Biden's claim to have entered the Senate as one of its poorest members...
"The Center for Responsive Politics provided us a 1973 summary of financial disclosures made by only some members of the House and Senate; it was published by Congressional Quarterly.
"Unfortunately, it’s hard to say anything concrete about his actual net worth in 1973, because all we have to go off of is this summary" and not the actual disclosure documents, said Center for Responsive Politics researcher Alex Baumgart.
"There's no listed securities here for Biden like there are for other members. From that, it’s reasonable to infer he had no major investments listed on his financial disclosure."
The summary Biden reported outside income in 1973 of $6,050, all from speeches."
The evidence indicates that Biden did not "leech" off the public while serving in the Senate. Again from Politifact...
"On Biden’s second claim about leaving as one of the poorest officials in government, Biden’s campaign sent us rankings from 2005, 2006 and 2007. Those rankings don’t account for the fact that Biden remained in government for another decade.
The rankings are from the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics, which annually ranks the wealth of government officials including members of Congress and top officials in the executive and judicial branches.
Biden ranked near the bottom in the center’s data in the years before he became vice president: Biden ranked
570th of 585 officials in 2005;
614th of 636 officials in 2006; and
626th of 639 officials in 2007.
Because officials report their assets and liabilities on official forms as ranges, the rankings use estimates. Biden’s estimated net worth was
-$47,494 in 2005;
-$12,492 in 2006; and
-$52,493 in 2007. In other words, it appeared that his debts outpaced his cash and other assets.
The center’s rankings only go back to 2004.
(Biden’s campaign also sent us reports indicating that
Biden’s
net worth when he left office as vice president was far less than that of former vice president
Al Gore and
Dick Cheney, and less than current Vice President
Mike Pence. Biden’s original statement did not compare himself to other vice presidents.)"
In challenging President Donald Trump to release his tax returns, Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden said he ha
www.politifact.com
A summary of how Biden accumulated the $9 Million net worth Forbes has assigned to the Bidens...
"Since 1998, the first year Biden released his tax returns, the majority of the Bidens' income was
attributed to his Senate salary and her community college professor's salary, according to Forbes.
Biden's salary in 2009, his last year in the Senate, was $169,000. The vice presidency came with a 30% raise; he earned an average of
$225,000 per year and served as vice president from 2009 to 2017. Forbes also reported that the pair received
roughly half a million dollars in pensions and social security benefits over the course of those eight years.
But the majority of the Bidens' wealth was built after he left office.
The couple has made more than $15 million from book royalties.
Joe Biden has written two books over the past 11 years:
And then there's the money Biden has made off of promoting his 2017 bestseller, "Promise Me, Dad." According to Biden's
recent financial disclosures, he was paid anywhere from
$8,000 to $90,000 per single book-tour stop.
The book tour resulted in
$1.8 million, according to Forbes. Public speaking engagements also contributed $2.4 million to the couple's net worth — and Jill's speaking fees tacked $700,000 on to that. CNBC reported that Biden took in
as much as $190,000 in March 2018 for one lecture at Drew University in New Jersey.
In total, the couple earned
more than $15 million, according to tax filings, from
book royalties and speaking events and
professor of practice fees provided by the University of Pennsylvania starting in 2017."
President Joe Biden became much richer after vacating the vice-presidency, through book royalties and speaking engagements.
www.businessinsider.com
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