WHERE DID HASTERT GET ALL THAT MONEY?
While the Tea Party rails that our Senators and Representative serve too long and make too much money, the bigger question so how is that they make so much money beyond their salaries.
This question is not limited to Repugnants. Even Dwight Eisenhower .. after a life on the modest income of a soldier, manages to leave the White House a multi millionaire. Bob Dole, one of the last of the “moderate Republicans,” left the US Senate well into the multimillionaire category. Our current Governor told me that he had made a difficult decision by leaving Congress to become a governor Jay Insley took a pay cut from $175,000 a year to $167,000. Worse, he lost the opportunity to earn big time form a post-congressional job as a lobbyist.
Insley is a real exception .. a very modest and honest man. Now we may get some real insight into why less humble politicians fight so hard to become Congressmen. Former Speaker Dennis Hastert has just been indicted for paying off a blackmailer with $3.5 million dollars! Where did a former high school wrestling coach who served for a decade in Congress at less that $175,000 a year while supporting households in Michigan and DC, manage to save that much money?
And, of course, Hastert made even more money once he was out of office. One study found that, on average—and when the information is publicly available—former lawmakers get a 1,425 percent raise when they make the jump from Capitol Hill to K Street. Hastert, who was worth between $4 million and $17 million when he left Congress, was making $175,000 as a representative. His K Street bump would be to almost $2.5 million a year.”
So where is the scandal here? Is the scandal that Hastert paid money to cover up some sex exploit from his days as a wrestling coach or is the scandal that Hastert had that much money to spend as a bribe?
Then there is Sarah Palin .. she showed that even losing after runnig for office could make you fabulously rich. Hmmm err ..does that explain the flood tide of crustacea running for President on the Republican label?
At least our local demagogue has never been a wrestling coach!