Joe Biden likes to call himself “Middle Class Joe,” but nowadays, he’s anything but that.
Biden is a bona fide member of the “1 Percent,” which according to the Economic Policy Institute means you make more than $421,926 a year.
” ‘Middle-Class Joe Biden has a $2.7 million vacation home. He charges more than $100,000 per speaking gig and has inked a book deal likely worth seven figures,” Politico wrote on Monday. “Since leaving office in 2017, the 76-year-old former vice president has watched his bank account swell as he continues to cultivate the image of a regular, Amtrak-riding guy. He’s repeatedly referred to himself as ‘Middle-Class Joe’ on the campaign trail and in speaking engagements as he publicly mulls whether to run for president.”
Biden has, of course, been on the public dole for nearly his entire life. A lawyer by trade, Biden worked in his field for only a couple years before running for a U.S. Senate seat in 1972, which he won. He was just 29 years old — and he’s been gobbling up taxpayer money ever since. He stayed in the Senate for 36 years, then moved into the vice president’s posh residence at Number One Observatory Circle in Washington, D.C.
The veep raked in some dough in D.C. The Bidens’ haul in 2015 was nearly $400,000, according to the White House.
Said Politico:
By the time he left the White House, he and his wife, Jill Biden, reported assets between $303,000 and $1 million, as well as liabilities between $560,000 and $1.2 million. During much of his time in office, Biden’s wife was a professor at Northern Virginia Community College, where she still teaches.
Biden’s finances changed sharply when he left office. He and Jill Biden signed a multi-book deal in early 2017. Russo, Biden’s spokesman, refused to disclose how much the deal is worth. But it’s likely in the “high seven figures,” said Keith Urbahn, a literary agent who specializes in political books and has represented the likes of former FBI Director James Comey and Nebraska Sen. Ben Sasse.
In June 2017, shortly after they inked the book deal, the Bidens purchased their vacation home in Rehoboth Beach, Del., for $2.7 million.
Another house that Biden bought in Wilmington, Del., for $350,000 in 1996 is now worth almost $1.9 million, according to an estimate by the real estate website Zillow. The Bidens rent a third home in Virginia, near the community college where Jill Biden teaches. Russo would not say how much they pay in rent, if anything, or where it’s located.
Sounds a lit like Sen. Bernie Sanders, the Democratic socialist from Vermont who also has three homes, including one on the water at Lake Champlain.
Biden also pulls in up to $200,000 for each speaking engagement (Politico reported he “charges a reduced rate for colleges and universities of $100,000”) and he’s recently been on a nationwide tour hawking his latest book.
But Biden will be running a campaign soon (very soon) for president, and he’ll travel the country pitching the idea that he’s a middle-class schlub just like all the rest of us. He’ll tell stories about the Finnegan family and his hardscrabble youth in Scranton, Pa. He won’t, of course, mention that he got deferments from being drafted into the Vietnam War (asthma, he says) or that he’s often chilling in a $2.7 million ocean side mansion. “The six-bedroom house (including three master bedrooms) features 5½ bathrooms, a gourmet kitchen, three indoor fireplaces, an elevator, golf cart, outdoor showers and ‘a doggy wash too,’ according to the listing,” reported Delaware Online.
Not bad for “Middle Class Joe.”
*Joseph Curl ran the Drudge Report from 2010 to 2104 and covered the White House for a dozen years. He can be can be reached at josephcurl@gmail.com and on Twitter at @JosephCurl.
The post Blue-Collar Hero Joe Biden Is Actually Super-Duper Rich, A Bona Fide 1 Percenter appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.
