Is Joe Lieberman a millionaire?

[Eric J in MN]

David S. Broder of the Washington Post attacks Ned Lamont as an "antiwar millionaire."

Does Joe Lieberman have at least 1 million in assets?

Ned Lamont tool to send a postcard to friends and family in Connecticut

[HereSince1628]

1. Nah, it's Hadasah who is the lobbiest.

[Totally Committed]

2. Of course he is!

When he ran for VP, didn't they release his net worth as aaround 3 million (IIRC).

TC

[Warpy]

3. A million is middle class these days

If he's got 10 million, he's in the rich man's club.

If he doesn't have at least a million, he's a lot dumber than he looks.

[hfojvt]

10. a million is middle class

:wtf:

That is what millionaires like to say. From my journal:
"Forty members of the current U.S. Senate are millionaires; less than one percent of the American people are millionaires."

Less than one percent of the American people. And you call that middle class? :wtf:

[Warpy]

14. I am defining by class and purchasing power

not by statistical median.

[hfojvt]

15. so the 1% are in the same class

as me. I am lower middle with assets of about $50,000. Purchasing power is going to depend on income more than wealth. Still with a million in assets a person could spend $50,000 a year for 20 years before it was gone. So that is not the same as my $15000 a year after taxes and IRA. I don't buy it.

[Warpy]

24. No, a million will generate a certain amount of income

and if you stuff it into a mattress and squander it at the rate of $50K a year, you will be telling the world something about yourself I'm sure you don't want it to know.

The truth is that it now takes a solid six figure income to maintain a middle class lifestyle, a distinction that seems to elude a lot of people.

Another truth is that class has been defined downward. That $50K income, while affording you a degree of comfort and even allowing you to raise a couple of children, will not afford you adequate savings for retirement along with college educations for those children. It is a working class income while being slightly above the statistical median.

What we used to call working class is now poor. Their income does NOT afford them a degree of comfort and it is paycheck to paycheck.

What we used to call poor is now destitute, and they are going hungry and/or homeless.

I sincerely hope this has clarified this to the point that discussions of class can proceed.

[hfojvt]

25. you have not clarified anything

except your support for a so-called middle class lifestyle. Back in my day, most of the middle class did not goto college.

Class is being defined upwards. Republicans love to do stuff for people making more than $80,000 a year - the top 20% and claim they are doing it for the middle class. BS. The middle class is defined as the place in the middle, where most people are.

My point about the million, which you seem to want to use as an insult to me is that, yes, it will generate a certain amount of income. However, a sensible person would also spend the principle. I could spend the principle at my current lifestyle and it would last me 3 lifetimes, and I do not consider myself destitute. My house may not be as nice as alot of people's apartments, but it is paid for.

Lots of people are going paycheck to paycheck, but most of them seem to have cell-phones too. A sensible person would ditch the cell phone and bank the $50 a month so they would not have to go paycheck to paycheck.

[Finder]

23. I doubt it is less than 1 percent...

as far as assets.

[hfojvt]

27. I am having trouble finding it on-line

but according to SAUS 2001 (which I have at home) 8.6% of families had an income greater than $100,000 in 1998. Their median net worth was $510,800, so half of them had assets of less than $500,000. 25.2% of families had income from $50,000 - 100,000 and their median net worth was $152,000. So we have 66.2% of families with income less than $50,000 and median net worth of all families was $71,600. 12.6% of families had income less than 10,000 and their median net worth was $3,600. 24.8% with income from $10-25,000 and median net worth of $24,800. 28.8% with income from $25-50,000 and median net worth of $60,300.

<10,000 --- 12.6 --- 3.6
10-25,000 -- 24.8 --- 24.8
25-50,000 -- 28.8 --- 60.3
50-100,000 - 25.2 --- 152
>100,000 --- 8.6 ---- 510.8

[Finder]

29. Let me put it this way...

If you own your own home and own your own business as well as make at least 50g a year...then your assets are most likely close or over 1 million.

More than 1 percent fit the above definition.

[hfojvt]

31. not by the statistics

most people are still paying for the homes they own, on 30 year mortgages. Same with businesses. Granted, in some real estate markets a $100,000 home has quadrupled in price over the last 15 years, and in other markets $100,000 would not buy a 10' x 10' vacant lot, but most people are not making those kinds of gains and it is still a long way to a million.

[BlooInBloo]

34. Not sure what search difficulty you had....

... but wikipedia has relevant-enough stats.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Household_income_in_the_United_States

If I'm reading the graph correctly, 98.5% of the population makes less that $250k/yr.

[hfojvt]

37. nice link, thanks

although it contradicts what I said. It says about 8% of households have more than a million is assets. That still, however, does not make them middle class.
Also I wonder why the stats for families in 1998 were so different than for households. Is that because of unmarried couples?
I was expecting "Finder" to find a link. For me, it was easier to reach for SAUS than to slog through google search results, the first two of which yielded nothing.

[Finder]

22. Agree. n/t

[babylonsister]

4. I think I read he owns Halliburton stock; that can't be hurting his

pocketbook. :eyes:

[Chiyo-chichi]

5. This is from 2003:

http://www.cnn.com/2003/ALLPOLITICS/06/13/senators.finances/

"Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut had an estimated net worth of $482,000 to $1.8 million."

That's quite a range.

[Eric J in MN]

7. Thank you. NT

NT

[onenote]

17. its the way its reported

And frankly, what difference does it make. There is no doubt that Lamont (whom I support) is far more affluent that Lieberman. In 2005 alone, Lamont and his wife reported $2.9 million in income.

In other words, this isn't something worth making an issue out of..

[LA lady]

6. WOW, Lamont sure is!

Lamont is the great-grandson of former J.P. Morgan & Co. Chairman Thomas W. Lamont, and has an inherited net worth estimated between $90 million and $300 million. On July 17 the Waterbury Republican-American reported the assessed value of Lamont's Greenwich's home was $30 million.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ned_Lamont

[MrBenchley]

9. Hey remember those leftists who attacked Joe because he was pro-Israel?

Where did they all go, I wonder?

[hfojvt]

12. I don't remember them

I thought we were attacking Lieberman because he is pro-Bush.

[MrBenchley]

13. Wow....guess you must be new to DU

or else you have the visual acuity of Mr. Magoo....

Try searching "Lieberman" and "AIPAC" or "Holy Joe" and "Israel".

[BlooInBloo]

33. Yah, that's right... Being against AIPAC, PNAC, etc....

... is being anti-Israel.

:sarcasm:

Sheesh.


EDIT: Typo in subject.

[Mabus]

8. Link to his (and others') 2005 Financial Disclosures

Joe's can be found here (warning pdf file): http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/congress/fin_dis/l000304.pdf

2005 Financial Disclosure Reports

House and Senate members must file annual financial disclosure reports with the Clerk of the House and the Secretary of the Senate, respectively, that describe the sources, types and amounts of income they earn. The reports are due May 15 and typically are made available to the public in early June. washingtonpost.com will be posting 2005 annual reports as it obtains and scans them.

[MoseyWalker]

11. If he isn't

then he's an even worse politician than I thought he was.

[karynnj]

18. That is an awful statement

I don't support Lieberman - but I have no respect from politicians who use their position to get millions.

[MoseyWalker]

19. I guess my viewpoint is

somewhat in agreement with yours, but more cynical. I certainly don't know the wealth numbers of national politicians, but would guess that there aren't any poor ones.

Lobbyists greatly control what happens in DC's legislative process. They don't get what they want for nothin'.

There are always exceptions, but that just seems to be what I think based on what I see and read. Maybe I should try to be a little less cynical.

[hfojvt]

28. I remember from his last presidential campaign

Joe hired two of his kids as campaign advisors. Their salaries - $100,000. Doubtless they were underpaid and over-worked just like the rest of the working class. They may still be working for him in this campaign.

[karynnj]

35. We may be equally idealist and cynical

idealistic in really wanting politicians to stay true to their believes and to not use their positions for political gain.

Cynical in seeing that it is hard not to take what is thrown at you and which you know you can take without consequence and because over time there have been cases where people on our side have done that.

Changing campaign financing and real (not the sham this year) lobby reform could make some progress - but I would be totally naive if I thought you would ever have a situation where those with money or power to help a politician wouldn't get listened to first. (I loved the 1997 Kerry - Clean Election Senate floor speech because he spoke of things like this.)

My comment was in response to someone saying Lieberman was a poor politician IF HE DIDN'T enrich himself.

[Greyhound]

30. I guess that's why politicians rate considerably lower than used-car

salesmen in the trust/respect category. Few that aren't already rich become politicians, and they soon become rich.

[TheCowsCameHome]

16. How in the world could he NOT be a millionaire?

[Donald Ian Rankin]

20. You know, not being a millionaire is really quite easy.

I've been managing it all my life.

[TheCowsCameHome]

26. Me too, but then again I'm not a US Senator either.

[cosmicdot]

21. personal finance statements at opensecrets.org

filed in 2006 for 2005
http://www.opensecrets.org/pfds/pfd2005/N00000616_2005.pdf

filed in 2001 for 2000 (for the presidential election) <---- much more detail
looks like stocks in Pfizer, AIG (see Nixon Board), Clear Channel, GE, etc.
http://www.opensecrets.org/pfds/pfd2000/N00000616_00_Pres.pdf

link to all disclosures 1995-present
http://www.opensecrets.org/pfds/candlook.asp?CID=N00000616


At any rate, Ned Lamont isn't a Board Member at the Nixon Center, but Joe Lieberman is.


Looks like the latest Nixon website is hiding its Board member list.

Thanks to the Wayback Machine ...

These are the folks with whom Joe Lieberman rubs elbows:


Board of Directors

Honorary Chairman: Henry A. Kissinger
name rings a bell (war criminal?); has been on Bu$h-Cheney-Rumsfeld's Defense Policy Board

Chairman: Maurice R. Greenberg
Bu$h Ranger donor; of AIG, aka American International Group, Insurance fame; a legal subject of NY Atty Gen Eliot Spitzer

Dwayne O. Andreas
Jeffrey L. Bewkes

Conrad M. Black
well, there's a another name which has been in the corporate corruption news

Charles G. Boyd
Tricia Nixon Cox
Julie Nixon Eisenhower
Robert F. Ellsworth (Vice Chairman)

Leslie H. Gelb
president emeritus of that foreign policy based on corporate profits and globalization think tank, the Council on Foreign Relations

Henry A. Kissinger
Eugene K. Lawson

Joseph I. Lieberman <-------------

John McCain running for something

Lionel H. Olmer

Peter G. Peterson
heads up The Blackstone Group, similar to The Carlyle Group

Richard Plepler

Pat Roberts
the right-wing Senator covering for Bu$h-Cheney

James Schlesinger
has served on Bu$h-Cheney-Rumsfeld's Defense Policy Board

Brent Scowcroft
hangs with James Baker, H.Kissinger, Sam Brownback and an agent of AIG, and Richard Perle at http://www.usacc.org/contents.php?cid=2 - a country in the Caspian Sea oil basin - see: Middle East geopolitics-in-proces

J. Robinson West
Dimitri K. Simes, Center President (Ex Officio)
John H. Taylor, Executive Director of Richard Nixon Library & Birthplace Foundation (Ex Officio)

Advisory Council

Chairman: James Schlesinger

David Abshire
Richard V. Allen

Christopher Cox
now at SEC ... hope he's fair and balanced in dealing with AIG

John Deutch
David Eisenhower
Susan Eisenhower

Evan G. Greenberg
one of Maurice's sons; see: http://demopedia.democraticunderground.com/index.php/Maurice_Greenberg

Lee H. Hamilton
that 'non-partisan' "Democrat" favorite for Bu$h-Cheney so-called investigations

Rita E. Hauser
Josef Joffe
Donald M. Kendall
Peter Kovler
Charles Krauthammer
Robert C. McFarlane
Janne Nolan
Joseph S. Nye, Jr.
Alexei K. Pushkov
John E. Rielly
Peter R. Rosenblatt
William V. Roth, Jr.
Thomas A. Russo
Angela Stent
Marin Strmecki
Yuli Vorontsov


http://web.archive.org/web/20050205063607/www.nixoncenter.org/boardac.htm
http://tinyurl.com/pubbw

What a Democrat!
I couldn't in good conscience be associated with such a crowd.
Nixon wasn't exactly friendly toward Democrats and their supporters.

How can there not be some conflict of interest when our Senators and Representatives vote on spending bills which they know will be sending tax dollars to their stock portfolios?

Reference:

Pentagon Policy Board
http://www.fas.org/irp/agency/dod/dpbmembers.html

[chimpymustgo]

32. Joementum owns a townhouse in the DC gated community of Hillandale

worth AT LEAST 1.5 million (which ain't all that much in these parts) - but it puts him im the club. And you know he's got the stock and other shit they do to pass the cash among themselves.

[burythehatchet]

36. The way it worked was

Joe Millionaire was really not, but all the pretty girls thought he was. But he was just a really good looking construction worker. All the pretty girls tried to hook him but then the joke was on them because Joe was not really a millionaire.