Clintons earn $109m in 8 years
2008-04-05 22:00
Washington - Tax returns released by former first couple Hillary and Bill Clinton revealed they earned $109m over eight years, but questions were raised on Saturday about the sources of much of their income - especially for the ex-president's speeches.
A day after Hillary Clinton's White House campaign posted the 221 pages of personal financial documents on her website, US political analysts and media focused on the sources of the $52m Bill Clinton earned for speaking engagements, pointing to links between his huge fees and donations to her current campaign to win the Democratic presidential nomination.
Senator Clinton's campaign has sought to make the revelation of their wealth a sign of her transparency, after being pressed for weeks by rival Barack Obama's campaign to match his income disclosure.
And the records show the couple paid $33m in federal taxes over the period - a relatively high 31% tax rate - and donated $10m to charity.
"The Clintons have now made public 30 years of tax returns, a record matched by few people in public service," said Clinton spokesperson Jay Carson in a statement.
"None of Hillary Clinton's presidential opponents have revealed anything close to this amount of personal financial information."
Usually aggressive in responding to announcements by their rival, Obama's campaign made no comment about the Clintons' immense wealth.
Alienating the 'average voter'
But with the median US household income in 2006 just $48 200 - 0.3% of the Clintons' earnings that year - the revelation could undermine her efforts to connect with average voters.
The Los Angeles Times pointed out that the expenses the Clintons have claimed for cleaning and maintaining their homes is greater than the $44 000 median annual family income in Pennsylvania, the next important state to vote on the Democratic presidential nomination.
Such comparisons, coming as the country's economy sinks into likely recession and job losses mount, could prove a liability to the Clinton campaign.
The income and tax documents released on Friday show that since Bill Clinton left the White House in January 2001, after eight years pulling in less than $400 000 a year, the couple earned $109 175 175, or $13.6m each year.
In comparison, income for Senator Obama and his wife Michelle, who released their own tax documents on March 25, peaked in 2005 at $1.6m.
Only a small part of the Clintons' income came from her senate salary, his pension, and investments.
Both made large sums from books - $10.5m for Senator Clinton, mainly from her autobiography Living History; and $29.5m for the former president's two books, including $23m for the best-selling memoir My Life.
By far the biggest source of income was the $52m from Bill Clinton's speaking engagements.
Talk isn't cheap
As they exited the White House seven years ago, the Clintons had reportedly $12m in debts for legal costs related to the Monica Lewinsky scandal and other cases that arose during Bill's 1993-2001 presidency.
The former president immediately launched into speaking tours, earning sometimes hundreds of thousands of dollars for a single engagement. The newly released documents do not detail the sources of these payments.
But in 2005, he made 352 speeches - averaging almost one a day - and for two speeches in a single day in Canada, he pulled in $475 000.
The Washington Post said banking giant Citigroup, which together with its employees, ranked as a leading source of donations for Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign and the $250 000 it paid to her husband for a speech in France in 2004.
Much attention was also given to Bill Clinton's business partnership with billionaire investment banker Ron Burkle, a donor to Clinton's campaign.
Clinton's work for Burkle's Yucaipa firm has brought him some $15m, and could earn him another $20m if he leaves the company, the Wall Street Journal said.
US media also said that Bill Clinton earned $400 000 in consulting fees from direct marketing giant InfoUSA, whose chief executive Vinod Gupta is a strong backer of Hillary Clinton's candidacy.
- AFP