$109 Million Reasons to be an Ex-President

I never begrudge someone the opportunity to earn a buck, despite the excessive pay scales in lots of industries (finance, sports, acting). And of course unless an individual is a higher-up at a publicly-listed corporation, it’s impossible to know what someone really makes. That is, unless you are running for the highest office in the land.

Succumbing to pressure, the Clintons recently released their tax returns for each year since leaving office. To say that post-Presidential life has been good to the former first couple is an understatement. The Clintons earned $109 million between 2000 and 2007, according to tax information released by Mrs. Clinton’s presidential campaign. While at first glance, I thought that the numbers seemed astounding, after breaking everything down, it all made sense.

It is important to remember that the Clintons came into the White House with essentially nada. In my experience, when people who come from nothing get a taste of making big bucks, they really go for it. Perhaps it’s fear-based—the “I’ll never live like that again” mantra (or in the Clinton’s case, “I will never beg for a legal defense fund again!”) that compels folks to push onward. Regardless, if lots of organizations were willing to pay President Clinton $250,000 per speaking engagement, I have a sneaking suspicion that he made sure that his booker kept him busy.

To that end, President Clinton earned $51,855,599 from speeches since leaving the White House. In addition to that amount, the Clintons raked in approximately $40 million from their books (his two, “My Life” and “Giving,” totaled $29.6 million and Senator Clinton’s “Living History” $10.5 million). You might think that just under $100 million would be enough for the dynamic duo, but there is one more income source to add: consulting income, or as I like to call it “the smoking gun” of these returns.

President Clinton performed “consulting services” to billionaire investor and supermarket magnate Ronald W. Burkle. Since 2002, the former president provided investment advice and rainmaking as a consultant. Let’s be clear that nobody believes that Mr. Burkle needed investment advice from Mr. Clinton. What he did need was access to power players both at home and abroad. Clearly Mr. Clinton could open doors in ways that nobody else could, for which he was paid handsomely. The tax returns indicate that Mr. Clinton collected at least $12.6 million since 2002, and possibly as much as $15.3 million, from his work for Mr. Burkle’s Yucaipa Companies.


So here is my question: just who expects something in return for that kind of activity, if Mrs. Clinton were to win the White House in the fall? The sad part of the Clinton tax returns is like so much in their past, they just did not need to enter those muddy waters. Couldn’t Mr. Clinton have delivered just 9 more speeches each year to raise the extra $15 million? That’s just one question for the candidate who claims that she can best represent the needs of the working folks in America.