Thread: Lawmakers profit from investments, books ...

Lawmakers profit from investments, books
By JIM ABRAMS, Associated Press Writer
9 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid, the new Democratic leaders of the House and Senate, are obviously not in it for the money.

According to financial disclosure forms filed by House and Senate members Thursday, Speaker Pelosi, through her marriage, is a millionaire many times over. Reid, whose leadership post depends on holding onto a fragile majority in the Senate, can always fall back on property holdings around his hometown of Searchlight, Nevada.

In 2006 Pelosi, D-Calif., and Reid, D-Nevada, got salaries of $183,500 as the minority leaders in the House and Senate. Rank-and-file lawmakers received $165,200 in pay.

The Republican leaders also reported healthy incomes and assets.

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky, said he held property in the District of Columbia worth $1 million-$5 million. But a large portion of the family assets is held by his wife, Labor Secretary Elaine Chao. She had investments, mostly in index and mutual funds, totaling between roughly $850,000 and $1.9 million, plus retirement accounts valued at between $265,000 and $600,000.

House GOP leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, reported assets of $1 million to $5 million in the retirement plan of a plastics company he previously headed.

The disclosure forms provide only traces of the legal clouds overhanging several lawmakers.

Rep. William Jefferson, D-La., facing a 16-count indictment on charges he received more than $500,000 in bribes, said his major sources of unearned income were rent from two tracts of land on Lake Providence in Louisiana, worth less than $7,500. He reported $56,250 in gifts to his legal defense trust fund.

Senators in particular tend to come from the upper echelons of wealth, with many claiming incomes and assets reaching well into the millions. Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., heir to his family's oil fortune, has three blind trusts worth more than $80 million.

Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., who is running for president, reported that her husband, former President Clinton, made more than $10 million for giving speeches last year. The couple held two accounts — a regular bank account and a blind trust, each valued at between $5 million and $25 million. The forms don't require Congress members to report exact figures, only to note the ranges their holdings fall within.

The low end of the wealth scale included Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., the top Republican on the Homeland Security Committee, who said he had no major sources of unearned income in 2006. His major asset was a bank account held jointly with his wife worth between $50,000 and $100,000.

Armed Services Committee Chairman Ike Skelton, D-Mo., said his major asset was a trust fund worth $100,000 to $250,000 and his major source of unearned income was dividends and interest worth less than $2,500.

Rep. Dave Obey, D-Wisc., and Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., the two Appropriations Committee chairmen who are in charge of annual budgets worth almost $1 trillion, reported among the most simple personal budgets. The 89-year-old Byrd listed among his major assets a $100,000-$200,000 retirement account, while Obey claimed two IRAs totaling less than $115,000.

Reid owns 160 acres in Bullhead City, Ariz., worth up to $500,000 and land holdings and old mining claims in Nevada worth between $496,000 and $1.39 million. His office said that while the property is referred to as mining claims, there are no mining operations. Reid has promised to revise earlier disclosure forms after questions arose last year over a Las Vegas land deal, but his staff said he is still awaiting Ethics Committee signoff on the proposed revisions he submitted.

Pelosi's investor husband, Paul, reported 30 stock sales and purchases last year, often involving sums up to $500,000 or $1 million each. They included buying Apple Computer and Ebay stock, each in the $500,000-$1 million range. The couple also own a vineyard together in St. Helena, Calif., valued at $5 million to $25 million.

The disclosure forms reveal a variety of income sources. Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., took in rent of $5,001-$15,000 for his cottage in Ireland, and received a $30,000 book advance for "Letters from Nuremburg." His father was a prosecutor at the Nuremburg war crime trials after World War II.

Several other senators were also involved in book projects: Clinton reported royalties of $350,000 for her book "Living History." Sen. Kit Bond, R-Mo., vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, received a $16,667 advance for a book he is co-writing on radical Islamic movements in Southeast Asia.

Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., chairwoman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, made $1,462 from sales of her suspense novel, which features a combative, liberal senator much like herself. Boxer also was paid $737 for playing herself on an episode of the HBO series "Curb Your Enthusiasm."

Lawmakers cannot make more than 15 percent of their salaries in outside earned income, although book royalties are exempt from that limit.

Judy Biggert, R-Ill., had some luck last year, being picked as one of 25 winners of the United Airlines' Mileage Plus 25th Anniversary. She received 1 million frequent flyer miles, valued at $25,000, plus $5,000 to cover federal taxes on the award.

One lawmaker who is taking a pay cut this year is former Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., who is returning to regular member salary after pulling down $212,500 last year as the House's senior leader.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070614/...Xo5FpDvXSs0NUE


I would love to put anyone of them on MY budget for a month and see how they manage ...


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Bill Clinton earns $10M on talk circuit
By DEVLIN BARRETT, Associated Press Writer
22 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - Former President Clinton made more than $10 million in paid speeches last year, according to new filings that show he and his presidential-candidate wife have at least $10 million in the bank, and may have closer to $50 million.

According to financial disclosure forms made public Thursday, Bill and
Hillary Rodham Clinton hold two accounts, each valued at somewhere between $5 and $25 million. One is an old-fashioned bank account; the other is a blind trust.

The reports indicate that when it comes to family wealth, Clinton is the wealthiest of the members of Congress running for president. Of all the presidential candidates, only Mitt Romney, whose assets are between $190 million and $250 million, may lay claim to being more affluent.

Republican Sen. John McCain's family wealth is almost exclusively held by his wife, Cindy. An heiress to a major beer distribution company, Cindy McCain has several trust funds, money markets and other accounts, some more than $1 million.

Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., and his wife, Michelle, reported assets ranging from $460,000 to $1.1 million. Those assets don't include options in Tree House Foods, a food distribution firm on whose board Michelle Obama served. Michelle Obama stepped down from the board recently.

Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., listed as one of his major assets a cottage in County Galway, Ireland, worth between $100,001 and $250,000. He reported earning rent from the cottage of between $5,001 and $15,000. His wife, Jackie, has money market funds, IRAs and stock in companies, including Blockbuster Inc.

Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., listed bank accounts and life insurance policies worth between $19,000 and $110,000. He receives a teaching stipend from Widener University. where he has been an adjunct law professor since 1991. His wife teaches at the Delaware Technical and Community College.

Most of the presidential candidates serving in the Senate reported income from books. Obama was the most successful, reporting $572,490 in royalties for one book and an advance for a second.

Hillary Clinton's own book profits are declining, years after her "Living History" became a best-seller in 2003. She reported royalties of $350,000 for the book last year. Dodd received a $30,000 advance for "Letter from Nuremberg." His father was a prosecutor at the Nuremberg trials of Nazi war criminals.

Most of the presidential candidates filed financial disclosures last months to the Federal Election Commission and the Office of Government Ethics. Among the leading candidates, however, Clinton, McCain and Romney received extensions because the Office of Government Ethics wants them to open up their blind trusts.

The reports filed with the Senate by Clinton and McCain list the blind trusts, but don't disclose what is in them.

Former President Clinton upped his speechmaking money from the previous year, garnering some $10.2 million in payments, compared with about $7.5 million the year before.

The Clintons had a much more pedestrian income when he ran for president in 1992. If Sen. Clinton's 2008 presidential bid is successful, they will enter the White House a very rich couple.

Six years out of power, Bill Clinton can still raise huge sums with a personal appearance. He made a staggering $450,000 for a single September speech in London, at a Fortune Forum event, as well as $200,000 for an April appearance in the Bahamas to speak to IBM, and another $200,000 for a New York speech to General Motors.

The former president's earnings must be reported as the spouse of a senator. Disclosure rules do not require him to reveal everything. He received an advance from Random House for an unpublished manuscript, but is only required to say that it was greater than $1,000.

He also did not have to say how much he earns as a partner with Yucaipa Global Opportunities Fund, a Los Angeles-based investment firm.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070614/...HXzq3sVQeMwfIE

Clintons sell possibly troublesome stock
By JIM KUHNHENN, Associated Press Writer
1 hour, 20 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - Bill and Hillary Rodham Clinton liquidated the contents of their blind trust upon learning it contained investments of $5 million to $25 million that could pose conflicts of interest or prove to be embarrassing to her presidential campaign.



The blind trust and a bank account valued in the same range place the Clinton's total wealth at between $10 million and $50 million.

The Clintons opened the blind trust in April under instructions from the Office of Government Ethics and sold the assets in May, according to a disclosure form filed Friday. The Clintons have had a blind trust since President Clinton was governor of Arkansas in 1983 and had no control over its transactions.

Once they peered inside it, they discovered it included investments in oil and drug companies, military contractors and Wal-Mart.

The report, filed Friday with Federal Election Commission and the Office of Government Ethics, provides the most detailed look at the Clintons' holdings as their wealth has expanded since the former president left the White House in 2001.

The new report also shows that the former president made $16 million in speaking fees between January 2006 and Wednesday. So far this year, Bill Clinton has given 34 paid speeches for a total of $5.9 million.

The blind trust held stock in pharmaceutical companies, including $250,000-$500,000 in Biogen Idec and Johnson & Johnson and $100,000-$250,000 in Amgen, Pfizer and GlaxoSmithKline. It also invested in General Electric and Raytheon, two leading defense contractors. The trust had a varied portfolio, with investments in numerous other companies, including Exxon Mobil, BP Amoco, Walt Disney and eBay.

The report said all the proceeds of the sales are being placed in a cash account. The massive unloading of stock means the Clintons face large capital gains taxes.

President Clinton registered his blind trust with the Office of Government Ethics when he became president in 1993, then Sen. Clinton registered it as a Senate blind trust when she took office in 2001.

Clinton spokesman Howard Wolfson said Friday that the Clintons now "will be working to create a new blind trust consistent with both OGE and the Senate's rules."

Though all the blind trust transactions were handled over the years by a trustee without the Clintons' knowledge, some of the holdings could have been awkward for Hillary Clinton as she pursues the Democratic presidential nomination.

The blind trust held stock worth $100,000-$250,000 in NewsCorp, the parent company of Fox News, which many Democrats have denounced as biased against them. The trust also held stock in Wal-Mart and Wal-Mart de Mexico.

The senator served on the Wal-Mart board from 1986 to 1992, and was close with the Walton family that created the nation's largest retailer. But she has recently called on the company to provide better worker benefits and last year her Senate campaign returned $5,000 to Wal-Mart's political action committee. At the time, Clinton campaign spokeswoman Ann Lewis said the money was returned "because of serious differences with current company practices."

Friday's report comes on the heels of Hillary Clinton's Senate disclosure report, made public Thursday, which only covered activity in 2006 and did not reflect this year's liquidation of the blind trust.

Clinton and other presidential candidates were required to file financial disclosure documents with the Office of Government Ethics by May 15. But Clinton, and Republican candidates Mitt Romney and John McCain (news, bio, voting record) asked for 45-day extensions because they all had blind trusts that the ethics office demanded be opened.

When it comes to family affluence, the reports show that the New York senator is the wealthiest of all members of Congress seeking the presidency. Among all presidential candidates, however, Republican Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, stands alone with assets of between $190 million and $250 million. Republican Rudy Giuliani and John Edwards have each reported assets of about $30 million.

Last year and this year, Bill Clinton earned fees from $100,000 to $450,000 speaking to such corporations as IBM, General Motors, and Cisco Systems, finance giants such as Goldman Sachs and Lehman Brothers, and trade groups such as the National Association of Realtors and the Mortgage Bankers Association. He also has been paid to speak to nonprofit or charity groups, including the TJ Martell Foundation, which finances leukemia research, Nelson Mandela's Children's Fund and, last March, to the Boys and Girls Club of Los Angeles.

Jay Carson, the former president's spokesman, said Clinton typically donates millions of dollars in free speeches to charities.

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